Saber
by Hyena Cub
Summary: A human boy from Fourth Earth finds some remnants of the past.
1. Dreamer

**Saber**

**This story takes place on Fourth Earth, where a young human decides to explore the lands outside his own little valley, and discovers some remnants of the past.**

  
1 

Dreamer 

"Are you paying attention, child?" a kind voice asked. 

Saber blinked slowly, and looked from the window, where he had been gazing. The young boy's face sported a sheepish grin. "I am sorry, teacher," he said. "I guess I was daydreaming again." 

The teacher's face was reproachful, but she did smile. "I could tell. I have asked you the same question three times." 

Saber turned a little red, and he laughed. "Oops...sorry... Ask again. I will pay attention, I promise." 

There was a giggle in the small room, where fifteen or so children of different ages sat in wooden desks. A little girl of no more than five cycles was miserably failing at holding in a giggle. "He's always daydreaming...I bet he daydreams more than *night*dreams!" 

There was a general giggle at that, and a good natured laugh from the object of this comment.   
The teacher turned around and said in her ever-gentle voice, "Leelanee, go and sit in the corner for five minutes, please." 

The little girl pouted, but stood from her desk and flopped herself in the corner on the hardwood floor. She crossed her arms. "Rats," Saber could hear her say. 

Teacher turned back to Saber. "What I asked was: 'what is the coloring of the male grischri when he is ready for a mate?'." Teacher ignored the giggling of the younger students of the class as she discussed mating, and only waited for Saber to answer. 

Saber frowned, and looked down. He never liked studies; preferred instead to think of exploring and of the warriors in the village. He was very small for his age, smaller than most other Erthrins, and was always told he was too little to fight. Too little and too young... But he was not good with the studies, so why not? He could learn... "Um...green and white?" 

The teacher shook her head a little sadly. "No, that is for the female, Saber. You were told that last week. And twice the week before." She sighed. "The male is blue and green." 

Saber's face turned red again under the fine fur, and he fiddled in his seat. 

"Did you finish your assignment from last night?" 

Oops...he had been too busy making his own practice sword, since none of the warriors would do it for him... He turned redder and tried to sink into the seat. 

"Saber's gonna get the swiiiitch!" one of the girls in his own age group taunted softly, as the teacher told him to stand up. 

"Quiet yourself," the teacher said to her calmly. "Unless you would care to get it yourself. Saber, please stand in the front of the room." 

Biting his lip, Saber stood up, his eyes fixed rigidly on the ground, his face burning with humiliation, as he made his way through the room...which suddenly seemed about ten times as big as it usually was. 

Teacher reached down under her desk, and from eyes that looked from the corners, Saber saw her pull out the item of discipline in the classroom: a stiff switch from the tree outside. He looked down at the ground as he clasped his hands in front of him. 

"That is the third time in this moon-time that you have not completed the assignment," Teacher said. "And you have not been learning half the things a boy of your age should have learned by now. And it is not because you cannot. You are able, but you cannot pay attention." 

As most of the children looked on, some uncomfortable but many watching with the strange fascination that a crowd might view an execution, Teacher approached the boy. "Take down your bottoms, please." 

Saber wordlessly did it, fighting the tears of embarrassment as he removed the lioncloth he wore, and stood back up, resisting the urge to cover his backside. Children who did that only got themselves in more trouble. 

As a couple of the meaner children in the class giggled, and he heard a very rude comment from the boy he hated the most in the class, Teacher brought the switch down on Saber's backside with a loud "swatting" sound. He jumped a little and clenched his fists, but made no outcry. 

The switch was applied five times, and he yelped on the last three. Tears leaked from his eyes as the teacher told him he could pull his bottoms back up and return to his seat, and he did so, once again focusing on the floor and trying not to hear the giggles. He bit his lip sharply as he sat back down, and tried not to cry harder. 

One bit of satisfaction was that the boy who had made the comment, Iyen, received two strikes for it. 

At lunchtime, Saber was not allowed to play with the other children outside in the schoolyard. He watched them as they played tag-and-run or climbed trees, or played Frittball. He ate his lunch standing up against the one room school building, as it hurt too much to sit down. 

After the school day was over and the other children ran home or the youngest were collected by their parents, Teacher took the boy aside and said to him, "Saber, why can you not learn like the others? Why do you so often stare out the window, or draw on your parchments?" 

Saber liked Teacher very much...of course he was pretty mad at her for punishing him, but all in all, she was one of the few adults he would like even if he did not have her as a teacher. He shrugged. "I dunno," he mumbled. "It...it's boring..." That wasn't all of it either, every child thought school boring...but still, it wasn't him. He was a warrior, he knew it! If only the others would give him a chance! He was not a scholar, he wasn't a craftsman, as his father so often told him. He was clumsy with his hands. But he was smart! If he could only work at it, he could be a scholar, even a healer! 

Teacher frowned. She was a kind woman, and knew that it was more than the boy could tell her. "Perhaps it is...but there is more. Can you tell me about it?" 

Saber sighed and looked at her for the first time since that morning. "I'm just...everyone says I should be a scholar...I don't want to be! I-I want to be a warrior...or an explorer...I mean..." He sighed. "I try to pay attention, I mean I start out doing it, but my mind...it goes on its own. It sees things, imagines..." He shrugged. "And I just kind of...go with it. I-I don't really mean to..." He didn't, either. When his daydreams took him, he was a prisoner as much as those in the arrest-house where the thieves and killers were put. 

Teacher smiled kindly and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I know how hard it is to want to be something that you cannot...but Saber, not everyone can be a warrior." To be a warrior was an aspiration, but she did not even mention being an explorer. To journey beyond the realm where the few villages of the Erthrins and their allies lay was for madmen. Few returned back, and if they did, they raved of monsters and great metal things. "I know you are a very smart boy, and you can do it...please, try harder." Saber only nodded. "You now today's assignment?" The boy nodded again. "All right then, go on home. And tomorrow I do not want to see you looking out the window once, all right?" 

"Yes, Teacher," Saber whispered. 

That night at home, Saber's parents asked him, as usual, how the day went. His mother, as always, only nodded and accepted what the boy told her, but his father scowled and swatted him on the rear. The boy howled. "Teacher is right, that's enough talk of that nonsense, is that understood?" 

Tears once again in his eyes, Saber nodded. 

"I have already told you, you lack the skills and the strength of a warrior. I want to see you doing better in your schooling, or what happened in school will be nothing." 

Saber nodded once again, and was sent to do his chores. 

That night, as he lay in bed on his stomach, the boy had in his hand, a gatt stick for writing, and his parchment booklet he had made. This was his journal. He wrote down everything that happened in his life, had since he was able to write. Aside from exploring and fighting, he liked to write and draw. He wrote his life, and drew what he wanted it to be. He hoped that someday his writings would be that of great adventures... 

Today was no adventure...today had been a humiliation. Like many days, only worse. But he still faithfully, and truthfully wrote the day's events down, let the moist, natural dye of the gatt stick dry, and put the parchments away in the cubbyhole in his room, where his pesky little brother could not find it. 

Dreaming of battles in far away places, Saber fell asleep. 

Part 2: Tales of Days Past 

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	2. Tales of Days Past

  
**2**

Tales of Days Past 

The next day was a rest day. Twice out of the week were such days, where the children did not go to school, and most of the adults did not work. But only one of those days was allowed leisure. 

On the first of these days, Saber went outside to see what was going on. He was still sore, and feeling somewhat hostile towards Teacher, but otherwise well enough. His chores, light on the first rest day, were finished and he was bored. 

He wandered around a little bit until he met with a group of boys from his age group; three of them. They were playing Frittball, and although two of them were younger than he, they were bigger. 

Normally he would not approach them, as they usually did not get along, but he was bored. For once he had nothing to do, as he did not feel like reading or drawing, or even daydreaming. He even considered asking if he could play. 

This idea was quashed a few moments later, however. "Hey, Saber," one of them snickered. "Nice job yesterday." 

"Yeah," the youngest of them snorted laughter into his hand. "Got spanked by Teacher." 

Saber scowled at the boys and told them basically what he thought of them. "Besides, Iyen got switched too." He narrowed his eyes at the oldest of them, the boy he always had the most problems with. 

"Yes!" one agreed. "But he didn't cry like an infant!" All three, including Iyen, laughed. 

Saber felt his face burn with humiliation and cursed himself silently for being so weak. Iyen was_ always _so strong. He never cried. He was best at fighting. _He_ was always held up as an example to the other warriors in training. Saber wasn't impressed. Iyen was a cocky jerk. Sure he could fight, well okay he fought really well for his age, but he was still a jerk! What was the point of being a good warrior if you were a jerk? 

"Yeah well he only got it twice," he mumbled, as he walked away. 

The others snickered, and Iyen called out, "Yeah, and don't come back again. This is a place for warriors, not poets." 

As the boys continued with their game, Saber kicked a stone in frustration, not even feeling its sharp edge cut into his tough foot. Poet! He was no poet! That was only a derisive term used by some of the warrior when they talked about the scholars.   
Saber sighed. He really _was_ a coward, wasn't he? He couldn't even stand up to a bunch of _daredens_...children from his own age group. From an adult he would have taken such a verbal thrashing, but from boys or girls his own age, he should have fought. He should have stood up for himself, defended his words. That is what the cadets did. 

In his musings, the young boy wandered around the outskirts of the little village, peering into the trees. His humiliation forgotten for now, he thought a moment before walking into the wooded area. The woods were safe; they were not off limits until one got a few hundred yards in. Looking to make sure he was not being watched, he ducked into the trees. 

It was all right for a while. He even relaxed and began to enjoy himself, as he walked on the warm, sun-dappled ground. The trees made conflicting shadows play across him as he walked, something he thought he could watch all day. But soon he began to warning woods: pieces of bark with bright red from the roisen flowers that warned of the approaching boundaries. There was a wood fence constructed that marked the actual borderline, and he stared at the warning in stark red. 

No Erthrins ever went beyond that point. Ever. People said the land was bad; some said it was possessed by an evil that could not be seen. Some said both. Saber stared hard into the trees and frowned. "So what's so bad about it?" he said to himself. He saw nothing different, only more trees that continued on beyond the fence. 

He started to pull away from the fence, when he froze, a sharp chill making its way down his spine. "berberberberberberb..."   
His face paled, and suddenly feeling like he was being watched, he turned slowly around. "Wh-what..." he stammered. "Who-who....who's there?" He peered into the foliage, trying to see just what it was that was out there. Part of him didn't want to know, but part _had_ to know. 

For a moment, there was nothing, then Saber heard it again, suddenly much closer: "berberberberb..." 

Saber's knees were shaking, and he felt a sudden screaming fear. He did not want to have anything to do with something that move so much closer to him without him knowing until it was too late. In his mind's eyes, he already saw some monstrous head popping up in front of him, screaming in his face... 

The boy turned around abruptly and ran as fast as he could, and even as he ran, he heard the sound again, closer still. He ran faster, falling several times in his haste. The sound had been right where he would have been standing a moment before!   
The boy did not stop running until he had gotten clear out of the woods and back in his own familiar village. He luckily did not meet anyone, or they would have asked why he looked like he had just seen a ghost. He would_ rather_ have seen ghost. 

He had been gone only a couple of hours, but it felt like it should be past supper time again. Once he had calmed himself, he went and asked permission to visit in the other villages in their valley. He easily gained the permission, being admonished to come home before dark; and as it was almost summer, that gave him a lot of time. 

He was not going to visit the other two villages of Erthrins, but the far village, by the Great Rock Cliff. He was going to visit the Bruters. 

"Hello!" a teenaged Bruter five years or so older than Saber greeted him. "Have you come for a visit or business?" He spoke formally, as most of his kind did, but friendly. Saber was known to them. 

Saber grinned. "Hi, Gret! I just came to visit. No trading or anything. You have guard duty again?" 

Gret made a face, looked around to make sure he wasn't being watched, then leaned over and said in reply, "The head guard is a large ass." His feral-looking face was drawn down into a scowl of displeasure, and he swiped a mop of brown fur from his eyes. 

Saber burst out laughing. It was said so seriously! "Get caught doing something you shouldn't?" he guessed. The face Gret gave him confirmed this. "Well...don't get caught next time!" 

Gret finally laughed. "We will not. We have a better plan for next time." 

Leaving the Bruter to his duty, Saber continued. 

He was going to visit the chief of the town, an older Bruter called Nenda. He often spent time with the man, listening to stories. He loved to hear the old legends of the Bruters, who were among the oldest species on Fourth Earth, and whose ancestors had roamed most of the whole planet before the great Cataclysm. Nenda told the boy of strange places, and ancient events that were so old, no one knew if they were legend or fact. 

"Hello, young Saber," the chief said with a small bow and a gesture with his hand like a good-bye wave. Saber repeated the gesture. That was one reason he enjoyed coming here very much: they showed him the same respect he showed them, even though he was a child. He felt he was an equal there. "Have you come to listen to stories?" 

Saber grinned. "Have you got the time, Chief Nenda?" 

Nenda laughed gently. "I always have time for my young guest. Please come in." 

The pair of friends sat in the chief's dwelling, a simple but comfortable wooden building in the shape of a circle; a shape the Bruters believed connected them to the earth and the valley. "What would you hear of today, my young friend?" 

"Well," Saber hesitated. "You can't tell anyone..." Nenda nodded. "But I went to the boundary...the west one." The west boundary was in his own village, the one in the woods. 

Nenda raised a brow. "Such a brave endeavor. What happened? I have never been there myself." 

Saber told the man of what he had heard, and asked if he knew what beast denned there. Nenda only frowned and shook his head. "I am afraid I do not know, young Saber," he said. "My people have never been beyond the boundaries either. We have only the legends of our ancestors. And even then, those legends are vague, and simple. Our people were not always as we are. We used to be almost beasts ourselves, and what stories we have are mostly images, feelings, simple words passed down." He gave the young boy a wry look. "How old are you now?" 

"I've just passed the eleventh cycle," he replied. "Eleven seasons." 

"Then perhaps you should find out for yourself." 

What was he suggesting? No one went past the Western Boarder! But still... Saber blinked, and said nothing for a few moments. But he thought. 

Saber and his friend spent the rest of the day talking, and the boy had supper with him and his family. The old man was the boy's closest friend; so far from himself in both age and species, but still the only one that really understood him. Some people back home did, but they thought what they understood about him silly, or foolish. Nenda thought neither. 

"Thank you for supper," Saber said when they were done, and he stood and bowed his head in thanks to the chief's wife. "It was very good." 

"You are welcome," she said kindly. "Travel safely, it is getting dark." 

"And do not stop for any strangers," the old man added with a wink. 

"I won't...and thanks again!" Saber ran, realizing it was late, waving to Gret as he ran. 

He made it home in time to avoid a thrashing, but did miss out on dessert, a fact that Drii, his little brother, felt it his duty to remind him of over and over. He finally shoved the little boy into the house trough before heading back in, and felt pretty smug about not getting into trouble for it. Even his parents had to admit the child had asked for that one. Drii was not happy.   
His journal that night had something more interesting in it at least,and mayhap in a week or so, something even more so. He hoped. 

Iyen and his Father   
Iyen 

Unnamed Boy in Saber's village   
Boy 

Part 3: Gathering Day 

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	3. Gathering Day

  
3 

Gathering Day 

Saber had planned on going back to the Western Boarder. But he had forgotten the second rest day; he had forgotten that not all was leisure on the second rest day of the moon-time. The second was Gathering Day. 

"But Papa, why can't I come?" Saber asked, perhaps for the hundredth time. 

Saber's father was in no mood to deal with any extra stress at the moment and growled angrily at him, "I said no! It is a place for warriors, not for boys and scholars! Now get into your room before I thrash you!" 

His mother frowned and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Fegreth...why not let him come once? Perhaps he will not want to come again." 

The man had been about to yell at _everyone,_ but finally looked hard at his son. "Fine. You want to come, boy? You will come. And I will not allow you to run away, either. You want to come? Fine. You may." He stalked away. "Get over here, if you're going to hinder my journey, you will help in the gathering." 

Saber was apprehensive, but still, he followed along in his father's agitated wake. He was used to his father's ways, but the way he spoke of this day frightened him. Still he took mild offense that he would _want_ to run away. But then it occurred to him that maybe his _father_ felt like doing the same on this day, and that possibility scared him even more. 

Saber helped his father gather with the warriors of the village, something he had never done before. They gathered the townspeople's offerings of gold and stone, the two things that were demanded. 

"What is _he_ doing here?" demanded Drett, the greatest warrior in the village. A scholar was something that he spit upon if one were to cross his path on the roads, at least that's what most the scholars thought. Saber shrank back, feeling out of place, embarrassed, and intimidated. 

The boy's father made a face. "He has insisted on going. I was going to thrash him for his insolence...but I decided instead to let him come." He sighed and looked at his son, not unkindly, but weary. "It may have been kinder to thrash him." 

"Just make sure the whelp stays out of the way, Fegreth." Drett stalked away. Saber scowled, but did not quite dare stick out his tongue; this was the father of Iyen, the strongest boy in his _dareden_. The one who always made mock of him and usually beat him up if he decided to make mock back. No wonder he was such a jerk! 

But he had little time to think of it. Had his father been angry with him when mentioning a thrashing being more kind, he would have believed it said for his benefit. But the tired way he had said it scared the boy. It scared him badly. Saber had almost decided to stay home, but once again he felt the sting of his father's assumption that he would run away. Why should he not think that? That is what he usually did: run away. But a father's scorn is more difficult to take than anything. And a father's pride was something that a boy wanted more than all the gold in the valley. And so he went. Later he was glad he did, but before that he wet himself in terror. 

The warriors of the three Erthrin groups and the Bruter village all met at the one boarder of town where people traveled every moon-time. The only one: the Northern Boarder. The Western Boarder in the woods was blocked by a fence. The Southern and Eastern ones were giant, un-scalable cliffs that rose from the Bruters' Village and the Lowlanders. But this one had no barrier. It had nothing to stop one from passing, except fear. Fear and a few written warnings in bright red. Saber gulped, and although he felt vaguely ridiculous, he cowered behind his father's form. The fear gave his humiliation plenty to hide it with. 

It only increased as the wagon journeyed beyond the boundaries of the village, and the terrain went from   
pleasant, mostly green lands and brown roads to rocky ground and bumpy riding. Large cliffs rose, gray, and   
bleak, as the path they traveled narrowed into the only way out of the Valley besides the Western boarder.   
Saber had once asked his father why no one traveled the West, when they did the North, however reluctantly.   
He had said that facing the unknown was worse than facing the known. Saber had thought it a strange things   
for a warrior to say, and somewhat cowardly, although he would never tell that to his father. What if the   
unknown was less a threat? But that was not the place of an eight-cycler to say. Even at eleven seasons, it was not   
his place. But he still thought of it. 

Finally, they got to the narrow pass, and Saber's father saw his boy shaking. He saw him bite his lip in fear   
and leaned over to whisper very softly to him, "Now is the last chance, little one." He was no longer angry with   
him, only worried, as always on Gathering Day. "This is the last chance for backing out. If you want to return,   
do it now and run home." 

Saber was tempted. Boy, was he tempted. He had never seen such a place, where the acrid fumes rose in   
red, stifling tendrils, and the very sun was blotted out by the gloom. Where the gray rock loomed like cold   
giants, and he could see no life he recognized, only vague shadows that darted in the dark. But he swallowed   
hard and said, "N-n-no. N-no, Papa...I will stay." 

A little impressed, the man put a companionable arm around the boy. "Good boy." He said nothing else,   
but needed not to. Saber even noticed Drett look at him in surprise. He liked that. 

The cart passed the opening, rock walls shooting up from either side, and Saber could not help but look out   
at the wastelands that were only a plains version of the desolate tunnel they had been traveling through this   
whole time. Here and there he saw vast pits that looked as if they were filled with oozing fire, a blaze that   
some impossible hand had rendered to liquid and poured in the rock depressions. Though his mind screamed   
with terror, his curiosity was filing away every detail, looking at everything he could see. He would want to   
write this whole thing down in his journal. Not even Iyen had ever been on a Gathering! 

The little party rode for several hours in this territory, and Saber's fear had been diminishing. Though he was still tense, the   
same country had been slipping by as the oxen pulled the carts through, and nothing had jumped out them _yet_.   
He kept expecting it, but not as much. In fact he relaxed enough to doze at the gentle lull of the cart's movements.   
It was not long after when his father woke him, and he looked around with sleepy eyes, a little sheepish.   
You didn't see the warriors falling asleep in the cart did you? He gave his father a grin util he rememebered   
where they were and the grin vanished. He gulped. "Yes," his father said. "You must stay right with me and do   
as I say. Is that understood?" 

Saber nodded. "Yes, sir," he said in a low voice, and looked around. The lands had not changed much, but   
he could see that they had stopped in a shallow valley type area, almost a cave, but too surface. More like a   
large hollow in the rock with a narrow opening like the one they had passed to leave the village. He waited to   
see what would happen. 

What happened at first was not much. Silent and grim, the warriors and he all left the cart to stand by it,   
and everyone looked as if the mythical jrendi-bird had just come to claim them all for death. It was not a look he   
cared to see on the face of the bravest man in the village. 

They all just stood there for a long time, and Saber whispered to his father, "What happens now? How long   
do we have to stand her-" but he was cut off by his father grabbing his shoulders, not in anger, but in fear. He   
gulped and looked around as several of the warrios shushed them. Saber blinked. "Quiet!" his father hissed,   
looking out the opening. "If they are angered..." 

Drett grasped Fegreth's shoulder and shook his head. Glaring at the boy, he made a shushung gesture, and   
confused, Saber fell silent. 

An hour. Saber hopped uncomfortably from one foot to another, the tension that had been building releasing   
itself in pure boredom. Was this all it was? When did they leave? He had heard that being a fighter, a warrior,   
was five-sixths boredom, tedium, and training, and one-sixth fear. He was beginning to think that Gathering   
Day was the same. He had been right about the fear, and in about two seconds he knew it. 

All of a sudden, as all warriors present tensed and grasped their weapons for assurance, but none daring to   
draw, there was a sound from outside. An increasing revving sounds like the ones you could hear in the valley   
on some nights when the wind was right, from the outlands. Farther even than this. His jaw dropped; what kind of hellish thing was this? 

No one was paying attention to him as he heard somehting heavier than a house land on the ground. He peeked out the entrance, and his jaw dropped farther still, a voiceless gasp escaping from his lips. 

Outside was a shadow, one as big as a mountain, although he could not see it clearly. What he did see sent   
his eyes wideneing like plates, and that was when he wet himself. 

Too frigthtened to move, he stared transfixed as a giant dragon roared and raced at him, spitting fire and   
lowering its head. It was headed right at them! It would kill them all! But dragons weren't real! only babies believed in dragons! The boy looked up and screamed, seeing a bird bigger than a man swoop effortlessly through the   
air, and saw two other flying shapes, one that had blades as wings, and something bounding, like a giant ball   
made of the metal the warriors used for their swords. 

Finally the boy's paralysis broke and he screamed again, running back into the small cavern to cower behind   
his father, and this time he would not have cared if his whole school saw him, wet cloth and all. Right now he   
wanted nothing more than to be finishing his assigment that day. He even wanted to be home reading his life-book. Anything but this. 

A minute later, all roars stopped outside. Whimpering, Saber listened desperately as there was a moment   
of silence, then he screamed again, gripping his father's clothing, as several...he was not sure what to call them...came into his view. 

Six, seven, a dozen of them, spawns from Hell itself, came in, leering, horns on their very heads.   
They surrounded the frightened warriors, and from Saber's distorted view hiding behind his father, he still got a   
better look than he wanted. And yet he was unable to look away. 

Drett, the leader of the group of course, knelt and said in a voice that was not quite steady to the hellspawns,   
"H-here is the offering." He gestured to the cart and only knelt, as if waiting to be told what to do. 

None present answered, but a voice from outside, a voice that must have sent banshees shrieking in terror,   
ordered the warriors to start unloading, and do it now! Every one of them, including his father, immediately   
began to obey. As if going to the exeution place, they began carrying valuables from the cart outside.   
Including his father, and Saber clutched his clothes tight, stying right at his side the whole time. 

Sudeenly, he heard a harsh laugh right behind him He screeched and spun around, as someone grabbed his   
shoulders. Tall, he was so tall. Taller than any in his town, even Crazy Hesh, and with the face of a demon;   
distorted, nightmarish. He whimpered, wetting himself a little more, and not even knowing it. "Look here!" the   
demon gloated. "A runt! What should we do with him?" The voice was cruel, mocking, but they spoke like his   
people almost! The voice was from the nightmare realm, but the speech! That made it all the worse. 

Fegreth looked concernedly back, but did not dare speak; he did not dare. He could only hope that his son   
would be spared and berated himself for letting him come along. 

"I don't know," another hissed, coming up behind the first one as the poor boy cried in terror. "He looks too   
insignificant to worry about." It laughed. "Throw it back!" 

The taller one snickered and dropped the boy who landed on the ground and skittered under the cart. 

"I say we use him as our target practice," one said, the great metel thing that had bounded through the air He   
pointed a giant cylinder at Saber, a cylinder of metal, that looked like the cannon in the Lowlanders' realm. 

"No, please!" The cry had come from his father, who could not stand it anymore. He fell to his knees before   
the one who had threatened his son's safety. "I beg you, spare him. He is only a small child, take me instead!"   
Saber gaped at him. He had never heard his father beg. 

"You dare!" the slimmer demon hissed, and blew at him, as if to blow him away like a wind. To Saber's   
horror, a thin sheet of ice layered itelf over his father's body, and he froze solid, not able to move. Saber   
screamed again and cringed back against the wheel of the cart as the two demons only laughed and stood again,   
their playful cruelty sated for the moment as the rest of the warriors hastened in their task. 

Finally it was loaded, and the men and one woman stood by the cart once more. The demon with the power   
of the winter cupped its hand together and sent a flash of flame at Fegreth's body. The warrior collapsed, the ice   
gone, his body wet with the water, and shivering from the cold. His mind flooding with relief, Saber almost did   
not hear what the demon hissed. "I will give you one more chance, wretch. If you ever speak to one of us like   
that again, you will not leave this place." 

"Y-y-yes," Fegreth stammered, staggering to his feet. "Thank you for y-your g-g-generosity, lords..." 

"Get out." 

No further command was needed. The villagers all piled into the cart as the demons left, laughing once   
more, and then the awful noise of their beasts. 

Fegreth smacked his boy twice on the way home, half in anger for what had happened to him, and half just   
because he was angry at himself for subjecting his son to that horrible scene. But he had not struck him hard,   
and even Drett, who was also quite angry, could see the boy had been punished enough. Fegreth held his son to   
him and smoothed back his hair, and slowly the boy's terror diminished and he held onto his father for all he   
was worth. He was still crying. 

It was an hour before he could speak, and it was a horrified whisper. He kept glancing behind him, afraid   
one of the unnatural creatures would be there, leering. "P-p-papa...wh-what....what were they?" 

"Demons," he said grimly. 

"Y-yes....b-but...they...but they spoke like us!" 

His father shook his head and smoothed his hair. "I don't know, little one. No one knows exactly what they   
are. But they are clearly demons, with the power of the elements at their very fingers. And they are not even   
the lords, they are only the minions." 

Saber blinked. "Y-you mean they're peons?" 

A couple of the warriors winced and looked around, afraid omeone else might have heard, as some of the   
demons had such extraordinary senses they could hear a blade of grass rustle at two miles. But some laughed, a   
pure release of tension. Fegreth was one of those, and it made Saber a little more at ease as well. "Where did   
you hear that term?" he asked gently. 

"W-well...Iyen said it once. He-he said that's what a person is that lets someone else boss them around." 

His father nodded, serious once more, but not so grim. "Yes...I guess you could say so. And so, imagine   
what horror their master must be. You see now the reason for our offering. What they could do to our homes,   
our mates, children." He put a protective arm around his son. His lightly furred skin was still wet and clammy,   
but the horrible shaking had stopped. 

Saber only nodded. He did not want to imagine such a creature. 

There was silence the rest of the way home. His mother saw immediately he had wet himself, and discreetly   
ushered him into the bathroom to clean him, as in their village there was nothing wrong with a mother cleaning   
her child, male or not. Drii came in and laughed at him for wetting his pants and got swatted by his mother, and   
told by his father that when he could go on a Gathering and keep from _fainting_, much less wetting himself,   
_then_ he could talk. 

Drii sulked, but that did not stop him from asking his big brother later what it was like. In the safety of his own room, he was glad to recall it. Now that it was over, and he was still alive, he found himself amazed, and even proud of himself. He had gotten through it! He told the boy everything he could recall, and tried his best to decribe the horrible creatues he had seen. Drii's eyes were so wide, Saber had the funny thought of them falling out and rolling across the floor, as in a funny-drawing. "You're telling stories!" he accused. 

Saber looked at him in surprise. He had expected maybe fear or amazement, but not disbelief. "I'm not! Ask Papa!" 

But though the little one was young, his was not stupid. He looked into his brother's eyes. And he saw truth.   
"D-d-demons...do...do you think they'll come here?" 

Saber shook his head. "No. Papa says that's what the Gathering's for...so they don't." He put an arm around   
the child. "I'd fight if they tried to take you." 

He had ridiculeed Saber before, but that what what little brothers did. He hugged him. "You're brave." 

Saber beamed. There was almost nothing nicer than hearing a little brother or sister tell you you're brave.   
"Thanks, kid." 

That night, he wrote several pages in his journal, and rememebereed everything he could. He would have to   
get more parchment in town on the next rest day. This had been much better, or maybe much worse, than   
going to the Western border. Or so he thought then. 

Saber with his father on Gathering Day   
Saber 

Part 4: The Western Border 

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	4. The Western Border

  
4 

The Western Border 

After a week of school, and with Saber being a bit of a celebrity with the others, whose parents would not let   
them go on a Gathering, the boy was feeling both a little proud and a little embarrassed. Iyen was jealous, and   
was pretty scornful, saying he would have shown more bravery than the poet. Saber wasn't too happy, but he   
tolerated it. One didn't go up against the strongest warrior cadet in the village without getting hurt. 

There was one incident with Iyen's father though; he had gotten pert with the warrior, and immediately knew   
he had. Drett of course did not lay a hand on a boy that was not his, but raised a brow. "I-I'm sorry, Drett,"   
Saber said. "I guess I got cocky." He fidgeted and looked at the ground. 

The surly man started to say something, but then laughed a little bit. "I know you did good last Gathering...and hey you deserve to be a little cocky. I've done worse." 

Saber blinked and looked at him, shocked. "Y-You're not angry? I sassed a warrior!" 

The man laughed. "Yes. But you apologized, and without being told to. A forced apology is not meant, but   
yours was. And that's why I'm not angry." He chuckled. "I'm not a _total _beast, little one." 

Saber turned a little red. "I-I didn;t think that..." Then he shifted his feet. "Well maybe a little bit..." 

Drett smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I can be a tough old bastard, but I like to think I'm fair. I   
respect those that respect me. And I respect courage, from anyone. Even a child." 

The boy looked up at him, seeing him in a new light. He'd always thought of warriors as brave fighters, and   
protectors, and they were. But he had a sudden thought that's not all they were. Part of what they did was   
just this: talking. Making peace, even with just one small boy. And he found a new respect for him. "Thank   
you, sir," he said wonderingly. 

Drett chuckled again. "Go on, kid, I got work to do here. And behave!" 

"I will!" Saber grinned and ran off, thinking of this new way of looking at things. 

It was rest days again, and Saber was bored. By lunch time, he had summoned the guts to go one again to the   
Western Boarders, and looked around. Gulping, and shaking the slightest bit, the lithe boy hopped up onto the   
fence and dropped down, wincing as if he expected to be struck down for committing such an unthinkable act. 

He opened his eyes. "Well I'm not dead," he said, and this was definitely a good thing. In fact he felt no   
different! He had stood for a long time on one side of the boarder. He had stood in tall grass, in warm sunshine   
dappled with shadows from the leaves, surrounded by the conflicting smells of a dozen flowers. He now stood   
in tall grass, in the sun and shade, and with the conflicting smells of a dozen flowers... So why was it forbidden?   
After a moment, the boy began to move again, walking cautiously through the wooded area, looking around. 

He found himself remembering the awful, unnatural noise he had heard, that could get closer without him even   
seeing it, and shuddered, suddenly a little less confident. But today he did not hear it. In fact, he heard nothing!   
Only forest animals. He jumped at every noise, but they all turned out to be creatures he knew well. 

The boy walked for a very long time, seeing nothing but woods. The natural compass in his head told him   
where he was at all times, and so he never got lost, but it was getting late and he had to turn back. But he had   
seen something that made him vow to come back when he had more time and investigate. 

What he had seen was the thinning out of trees... 

And the edge of a road. 

He heard nothing...except once. As he approached the fence, he heard it: "berberberberber...." It was faint...but it sounded like it was following him. He turned and ran. 

Once a safe distance away, his fear turned to excitement. A road! It had to be! Did that mean there were   
other Erthrins around? Maybe their people could trade with them! Maybe Bruters...or what if...what if it was   
something new! Of course the idea that it was demons or monsters occurred, but the excitement of perhaps   
new allies pushed most such thought from his head. The possibility that it was only a bare spot also   
occurred, but it had been almost too perfect. And he was a dreamer. He much preferred to think it a new race. 

It was late when he got home, but he had told his parents he would be late. But when he arrived, he found   
his father and mother waiting for him, looking cross. No, forget cross, he thought, as he slowly, more slowly   
approached. They looked angrier than he'd ever seen either of them. He saw his little brother give him a guarded   
look of sympathy before scampering back inside, and that's when he knew he was in deep trouble. "Uh...what   
happened?" he asked. 

His father grabbed the boy's arm and hauled him inside. His mother shut the door. "Don't 'what happened'   
us!" he growled, looking angrily into his son's eyes. "Where were you today?" 

"I-I said I'd be late, was I too late?" 

"Answer me!" 

"I-I was in the woods!" Not a lie. Saber did not like to lie, and did not do so Of course he never told anyone   
everything, because they would only laugh at most of it. Of ourse sometimes they would get him in trouble.   
Like now. 

Fegreth narrowed his eyes and bent down. Intimidated, his son took a step back. "_Where_ in the woods?"   
he demanded. 

"Uhh.....o-over that way?" the boy said vaguely, pointing from where he had come. 

The man stood abruptly and dragged the protesting boy towards the back of the house. "I don't believe it," he   
said, his tone tight sounding and infuriated. "The healer in town said he saw you at the Western Boarder! And   
that you had crossed it!! Tell me the truth boy, and don't you dare weasel out of it. Did you?" 

Saber gulped, and decided then and there that he did not like the healer very much at all. He joined a list of   
candidates for anonymous prank-revenge. But now he new he was in trouble. "I-I was only-" 

"WERE YOU?" 

"Y-y-yes, sir..." 

Fegreth growled. "Looks like bringing you on that Gathering gave you an attitude, boy," he hissed, as he   
pulled him outside towards the tool shed in the back. 

Saber gulped. "It did not!" he protested. "I went there before, before I even went on the Gathering!"   
Oops...he realized as soon as he said it that it had not been a wise thing to say. 

His father turned to glare at him slowly, then his lips tightened together until it looked like he had no lips. 

Saber fought the slightly hysterical urge to giggle at the mental image of his father with no lips. He knew that would bring him a world more trouble than he had. His father said no more, only took a hollow cane of the type used for discipline from a shelf out on the wall, brought him inside, and shut the door. 

He ate his meals standing up, and took his classes the same way for a long time. 

That night, Saber lay on his stomach, not clothed even with a sheet, as it hurt too much, with tears in his eyes   
and a scowl on his face. He wrote a lot of not-nice things about his father. He wrote a few about his mother.   
He wrote a lot of (very) not-nice things about the healer in town. 

He stopped, thought, considered, and wrote a few more things about the healer before finally putting the   
parchment away and going to sleep 

Part 5: A Brother's Trust 

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	5. A Brother's Trust

  
5 

A Brother's Trust 

The boy's urge to wander and explore was stifled for a while after that. A moon-time went by, and school   
ended, always with the same assignment as before: to keep a log of ten important events that happened over the summer, and to come back the next fall with a story, either real or fiction, that contained these events. 

Saber had always been good at that, as he loved to write, and kept his daily journals. He had kept a journal for four seasons now, and had many parchment bundles stored away in his closet, hidden from view by little brothers. 

A week into the vacation, the incident with the Western boarder, his parent's anger and disappointment (and a bucket of pig slop-food over the healer's clinic door who never turned up any culprits) forgotten, Saber was watching the warrior cadets train. Jealous, he watched Iyen execute a perfect kick/sword-thrust with the wooden training weapon the instructor gave them to practice with. Iyen was the oldest of their age group; Saber the youngest. But they were not in the same group even though they were the same age. Saber's work was all scholarly. He had schoolbooks at home; life-book, history, math, letters and grammar...but he hated them. Well the history stories he liked to read, but the rest he could do without. 

No one noticed him until the instructor looked up while the boys and two girls took a break. He frowned. He was a warrior that Saber didn't much like. "What are you doing here, boy? Go away, this is no place for you." 

Under the derisive stares of the other children, Saber sighed and left. 

That night, he talked to his little brother. They fought, they teased, they ridiculed at times...but they were brothers, the closest bond someone could have, in Saber's thinking. He wanted to talk with him. The five-cycler was actually a little surprised. His big brother was almost always willing to talk to him but never called him into his bedroom for that purpose. "What is the matter, Saber?" he asked, climbing into the bed. He was five seasons old, just old enough to begin to understand things, and no longer a baby. 

Saber sighed. He of course had told his brother what lay beyond the Western boarder, and the child had been disappointed, but creeped out by the sound he had heard. "Remember last moon-time?" 

The boy nodded. "Yeah...Papa thrashed you good." He frowned. Sometimes he liked seeing his older brother get into trouble, but he thought this the wrong reason for it. It was a matter of principle! 

Saber nodded. He had been grounded for two weeks as well. "Well..." He looked around to make sure they were alone. They were. Papa had guard duty, and the boys' mother, a tradesman (as all tradespeople were called) was in the shop in the village. "Give me your word," he said. "Give me your word that you won't tell." 

Frowning a little, Drii said, "I swear." 

"What will you swear by?" 

Drii thought a moment then bit his lip. His brother's trust was important to him, and he knew there were some vows that could not be broken. He would make one. "I swear by my hintriin." 

Saber blinked. A hintriin was a blanket that every child is given from birth. It is a symbol of life, and of hope...and is always the most precious item an infant has. For Drii it was even more so. He never let anything happen to his hintriin, and for him it was a symbol of security. He nodded. His little brother had just made a vow he would not break, and he trusted him. 

Admittedly touched, the older boy smiled and put a hand on Drii's shoulder. "I am going back," he confessed without any hesitation. 

Drii's eyes widened, and he grinned the grin of someone who now knows a secret; a_ good_ secret. "You are? When? Today?" 

Saber bit his own lip. "Yes..._tonight_." 

He let that sink in as his brother's smile faded into a puzzled frown. "But...then Papa and Mama will   
know..." 

Saber nodded seriously. "Yes. I'm not coming back." He saw the look of alarm cross the little boy's face and added hastily, "I mean not for a while! I won't go forever, I don't want to run away." He sighed and looked down. "Drii, you know that Mama and Papa say I _have_ to be a scholar. I mean that isn't right. I think children should be allowed to say what they want to be, not have others tell them. They say you'll probably be a warrior when you're older, I am to be a scholar. The stronger boys and girls laugh me at. The other girls just think I'm cute, and the adults all smile at me like I'm...some kind of puppy or something." He looked back up and was surprised to see a degree of understanding in the child's eyes. "You know what I mean? I don't want to be a scholar, Drii...it doesn't...it doesn't_ feel_ right." He scowled darkly and picked at his bedding. 

Drii was kind of scared. His big brother was saying all this to him, and he felt like he should be making him feel better. He didn't know how. "I-I'd miss you," he said. 

"Awww, I'd miss you too, Drii, but I'd be back, I promise. But Drii, I saw a _road_. It was a road, Drii, there's more here than the Valley and the Wastes beyond the Northern Boarder. You know the rushing noises beyond the cliffs? I bet there's more out there too. I bet there's more than forest, maybe I can find the great seas the legends tell about! I want to see...I want to see if there's other people out there, Erthrins or maybe Bruters...or maybe something totally new!" 

Despite himself, Drii was intrigued. "I'd like to know that, too," he said almost shyly. "Could maybe I go with you?" 

Saber considered, and he said seriously, "If you really, really are really serious...you can go. But you couldn't back out once we start. One we leave, that's it." 

Drii bit his lip and looked down, as the warm sun shone in through the window, shining on them both in their safe home, the whole summer ahead of them. Normally it wold foresee endless days of playing in the village, and watching the warriors when they did not get chased away. But this year... "No," he whispered, and Saber could see he was trying not to cry. "But can I help you pack?" 

"Pack?" 

"Aren't you gonna bring your things?" 

Saber had not thought of that, but it was probably a good idea. Perfect start this is, he thought. But he nodded and squeezed his brother's shoulder. "I couldn't have gotten a better little twerp for a brother," he said. The little boy grinned. 

The two boys got a large, sturdy duffel from the linen closet, and in the wood tones of Saber's room, packed it with a few things they thought he would need for a week of journey, maybe longer. Long enough so that he wouldn't be in so much trouble he'd be miserable the rest of his life when he returned. He packed a few bottoms, a sleeveless leather top, pants and a light shirt of cloth in case of cool days. After a momnnt of condideration, the boy added his cloak in case of rain. He packed his journal, several sheets of blank parchment, and three writing sticks of blue, deep red, and a black. 

He snuck into his father's room and took an ornamental blade from his display chest and he hoped that his father forgave him the theft. But he had no weapons, not even training ones, and he felt scared enough without having no defenses whatsoever. 

The boy brought some of books, his life-book in case he needed to know about some creature he met, and his history book, which he wanted just to read. And he took some of his fiction books. 

Last, he took a store of jerky, some bread, and a waterskin filled from the mechanical wood pump in the kitchen. 

Finally they two boys stood on their front porch, looking guiltily around to make sure no one watched. It   
was not a rest day: the adults were at work. "Well..." Saber said. "I-I want you to look after Mama and Papa, and make sure nothing happens to my room, okay?" he said to the little boy. 

Crying now and not even caring, Drii nodded. "Will you draw me some pictures of what you see?" 

"Hell yes!" They both giggled nervously at this deliberate cuss. 

"Thanks.... wait." The boy ran inside and retrieved something from his room. He brought it back, and although it was obviously difficult for him, he held out a soft blanket. "Take...take this. May-maybe it'll keep you safe." 

Saber's jaw dropped. "Your hintrin?" he asked incredulously. Drii nodded. "No, I can't take this, what will you sleep with?" 

"I-I'm a big boy...I can sleep with my stuffed toys... I want you to take it...please?" 

Saber's lip trembled, and he began to cry himself. He grabbed his little brother and held him tight. "Thanks, brother," he said. "I'll take it. If anything can keep me safe, this will." He clutched the soft green knit blanket. 

Drii cried in his brother's embrace for a moment, and said in a muffled voice, "I-I'll see you when you get back...and I won't tell." 

Saber pulled him back. "I know you won't." He kissed Drii's brow and reluctantly backed off. 

As the little boy watched from the porch, Saber walked down the hard dirt road, the laden duffel slung over his shoulder, the waterskin on a belt almost too big for him at the waist. He turned once...he saw his brother wave, and waved back before he lost his nerve, and turned around. 

Soon he was out of sight, and headed for the woods. Swallowing hard, he paused once, collected his thoughts, and the young boy began a journey that even he could not ever imagine possible. 

Part 6: Journey 

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	6. Journey

  
6 

Journey 

Saber had climbed the fence with a great deal more ease this time, as his heart was not pounding with terror. The fear and sadness he had felt as he said good bye to his brother lifted, and he began to feel a deep excitement once more. He was really doing it! He was leaving the Valley! Something not even Iyen's father had ever done. 

The natural direction-keeping sense in the boy led him unerringly to where he had seen the road before, and he stood there in the underbrush staring at the few inches of it for a long time. He had been listening for some time for the sound...but he had never heard it this day. Not yet. Cautiously he stepped onto the road. 

The trees were still mostly all around, but the boy could clearly see that there _was_ a road, and he stepped upon it, and began to follow it. 

An hour later, Saber could see that the trees thinned still more, and his heart pounded in anticipation. What would he find? Would there be a village? Would there be Erthrins? Maybe ones that did not know that _his _village existed either? Would they be Bruters...or demons? He found himself hoping that it was none of the above. He wanted it to be something completely different here, many hours from his own home. It was approaching dark, and by now his parents would know he was gone. 

He hoped Drii did not get into any trouble, but he also knew that the child would not tell. He _also_ knew that if his parents realized Drii knew, and that he had taken such a promise, they would not make him tell. 

"berberberber" 

Saber froze. There it was! And he had nowhere to go now, so far away from home. He was on his own now, whatever this was, he would have to face it. Hastily, he flung the duffel from his back, searching for the dagger he had taken from his father's room. But it had gotten tangled in his clothing and he could not get it free in his haste, and so he simply picked up the pack, closed it, and intended to use it as a bludgeon if he needed to. 

"berberber..." 

"berberberber..." 

"berber..." 

Saber spun around as the noise droned up from all around him. Whatever it was, it hunted in packs! There were more of them! He gulped and had time to think that he would be dead before he even got a day away, but still nothing happened. Yet. He heard a rustling in the underbrush even as he glanced through the trees and saw something that made his heart leap with excitement: a building! Maybe whoever lived in it would know how to fight these. 

However, he did not have the time to get to the building, as what had been surrounding him stopped making noise, and the bushes parted. 

Saber screamed and fell back on his rear end, scrambling to stand, and skittering backwards. But then he only stared, clutching his duffel as if it were a lifeline. Shaking, he squinted his eyes and looked carefully at what stepped from the bushes, and some of his fear left. Some. What he was looking at was...a person, sort of. It was round shaped, smaller than him, although he had a feeling that it was an adult, and that led him to wonder there was even such a thing as an adult version. It was part metal! What kind of creature... 

"Hello!" it said, the circle where its mouth should be lighting up like a blaze. 

"Eyyyagh!" Saber recoiled about five steps. It talked! The two stared at each other for a long time, when others of its kind emerged from the bushes. Saber could see that their metal was not clean like the warriors' weapons, but dirty, dented, like the very old pots found sometimes around the Valley from his own ancestors. They were spotted with the red corrosion called rust that people who understood metal sometimes complained about, and in some cases, most of their bodies were covered with it. Some made screeching sounds like fingernails on the blackboard as they moved. They did not seem like they wanted to attack; he hoped. 

Trying not to shake too much, Saber slowly took one step forward. Ten or so of the things were ringed around him in a loose circle, like a pack surrounding its prey, but what he felt from them was not aggression but curiosity. "By the sky..." he said in an awed whisper. These were the demons...spirits...whatever the adults in town said were beyond the Western Boarder? "H-h-hello," he said. 

The little person had little round ears on top of its head, some flesh with coarse fur bushed from it, and a circle nose. It was the strangest creature he had ever seen! He was trying to decide if they were living or man made, or a little of both. 

The little people erupted into a chorus of the "berberber" sound that he had been hearing, and figured this must be their natural sound. He heard a few other syllables, making it sound sometimes like "burbulburbulbur..." 

The different colored one at the head of the group seemed to be the pack's leader, and it spoke again. It spoke in a voice that sounded like it came from inside its head, behind its blaze mouth, and stopped and started erratically as it spoke. He could hear a faint whirring in the background like when the few machines in the valley needed to be fixed, or a cart wheel needed oil. "What arrrre you?" it said. "We have not seen your kind herrrre before." 

Saber was just amazed at first that the things talked, and coherently, but the young boy had finally decided that they meant no harm. He slung his duffel over his back again. By the looks of the jerky movements of the metal things, he could easily outrun them and probably just as easily defeat them even in a fight. "I-I'm an Erthrin," he said. The people smelled strange, like machine oil and dirty fur. "My name is Saber from the West Village...what...what _are_ you?" 

"We-we-we-we..." Saber blinked as it repeated this identical word over and over for a minute or two before resuming. "We are Robear Berbils, from the planet Robear." The...Robear? sounded as if he were reciting something for a ritual, as if he were reciting it for the thousandth time, and Saber had the sudden intuition that these creatures were very, very old. "I am Robearbill." 

Robearbill? That was a strange name. Of course his own probably sounded weird to this Robearbill. Saber looked around, startled, as he realized the others had hemmed in closer to him, and a couple were reaching out hands to touch him. He recoiled, and was surprised to see that they did the same, stumbling back hastily. The boy relaxed and slowly approached, reaching out his own hand, ready to move it back if they either did not want to be touched or did something he thought to be a threat. They did neither. The bears felt cold and smooth, except for where the flesh was, and that felt hot, like an animal with a fever serious enough to be deadly. Were they sick as well? Or was this just their body temperature? "I don't believe it...my people think you are demons, but you're people!" 

"We are Robear Berbils, from the planet Robear!" the thing announced again its cheerful, somehow dead voice. 

A couple of them were touching him now, seemingly as curious about him as he was of them and he figured they had just as much reason to be. They had probably seen his people from a distance, but they had never approached. He asked why. 

"We are peaceful," one of the others answered. "We do not go where we might frighten or harm someone." This one spoke almost normally, as it seemed to be in the least disrepair. "I am Robearbert." 

"Peaceful? Boy...I bet the warriors would drop unconscious knowing that. They think you're death!" 

"Would you like to see our village, Saber?" the lead one, Robearbill, asked. 

Saber nodded eagerly. "Yes!" 

"Follow us, please." The little person turned and waddled away, moving as if he was fulfilling a programming. There was a race of small canines that denned in the lowest parts of the Valley that lived a life exactly the same as its fellows. Its behavior was preprogrammed from birth...these Robears acted like that, only even more so. Saber was closer in this thinking than he thought. 

The young Erthrin looked around in amazement as they emerged into a village smaller even than his own. It had narrow pathways and little round looking huts made of straw, most of which looked as if they had been destroyed and rebuilt many, many times. They were patchwork, really, not a shred of what they might have originally been made of remained. More Robears scurried around, seemingly without any kind of purpose, they only walked around. Some seemed to be gathering fruits of some kind from plants in fields around the tiny village, but they were not carrying them anywhere. They just kind of carted them around. "What...what are those Robears doing?" Saber asked. 

"We are uuusually called Berbils," the lead one told him. "Those Berbils are carrying candifruit. Would you like some?" 

"Well sure, if there is enough." 

"There is enough," the Berbil said. "We Berbiiiils can-can-cannot eat. We raise our crops for our friends and others around Third Earth." 

"Third Earth? I thought this was Fourth Earth!" 

"It is. But to us it will always be Third Earth. The cataclysm did not destroy us. Therefore we are still in Third Earth." This was a bluish-looking one who called himself Robearbob. 

"Right..." The scary thing was, it made a strange kind of logic. He tasted the candifruit, and at first thought it the sweetest tasting food he had ever eaten. But as he chewed, he realized it had a chemically taste,one he did not think was supposed to be there. He also saw no other villages as far as his eyes could see. "Who do you give it to?" he asked, discreetly hiding a grimace at the taste. Robearbill rattled off about a dozen names that rather jumbled in his mind and he was sorry he asked. He had a feeling that those people he mentioned did not exist anymore. 

An awful stench greeted his nostrils as they passed what looked like the silo of a farmer, but smaller sized to fit the scale of these Berbils. He peered inside, and found that it was chock full of mostly mush. He gagged and staggered backwards. "That's all rotted in there!" he said to Robearbill, and even as he said it, others were putting the strange candifruit in the silo. 

"That is where we store our candifruit to give it to our friends," Robearbill explained. 

Well that reinforced his theory! 

"Where are you travelling to?" the Berbil continued. 

"Well, I don't know yet. I am just travelling. I want to explore and see new places!" 

"Would you like a place to stay for the night? We have an inn for any weary travelers." 

"Yes! I would like that very much. I walked all day." He had drunk half of his water already in the hot summer sun. He would have to find a river or a stream somewhere. 

"Please follow me. The iinn is in   
Oh, no, heeeelp us! We are under attaaaack!   
the center of town." 

Saber stopped and stared. All of a sudden, the Berbil had spoken in two voices, as if possessed by a spirit! 

Even as he finished his first sentence, the second, seemingly a cry for help, had cried out at the same time. And Robearbill had seemed not to notice this lapse as he led the small boy to the center of town. 

The inn was small, but he was a child, and it was all just fine for him. He had regarded the Berbil with a degree of caution since the strange help cry. The creatures seemed to be stuck, stuck in time. They seemed to be stuck in a single time loop, and although they knew that time had passed, their minds seemed to think they existed in the previous time. A time before the Great Cataclysm. 

The innkeeper, a female,so he assumed by the flower in her hair, led him up to a room on the second floor as Robearbill said his good-byes and waddled home, Saber assumed. The room was clean, and he had an idea that the Berbils kept it that way even though it was never used. The village looked like it had once been open like his own, but as he looked out through the little glass-less window, he could see vines and trees had overgrown the fields, and most of the crops were small, withered, and he had no doubts they were tainted like the fruit had been. 

To the sounds of the female downstairs cleaning a bar that had probably already been cleaned many times that day, as the wood was worn and pitted, Saber lay on the little bunk and wrote in his journal. He wrote of his journey here, of what had happened when he met the little Berbils, and what kind of people they were, recalling every detail he could. He wanted to remember this well. He described the town in depth, and even made a sketch, remembering the promise to his little brother. 

He wrote his thoughts about the Berbils, and what happened. They needed repairing, and he thought there were none on this planet that remembered the little beings, if there even _was_ anyone else on the earth. He had seen no signs here that these little people ever saw anyone else, they only thought that they did. But even as they dealt with him, they seemed more alive, eager to help, like they felt they had purpose. It was as if somewhere in the faulty strange metal electronics, they knew. They _knew_ that he was the only real person that had come to their village, but the rest was so far gone they might as well have not. They were so very alone, and they did not even know it. It made him feel sad. Maybe his people could help them someday. 

Having written enough to make his hand and fingers sore, Saber finally closed his eyes as the moon shone brilliantly on the Berbils' village, and fell into an exhausted sleep. 

Part 7: Battle of Spirits 

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	7. A Battle of Spirits

  
7 

Battle of Spirits 

When Saber awoke the next morning to the vague sounds of fighting outside, his mind was in a whirl. He   
was disoriented, confused. He was not sure where he was or what had happened, but his first thought was that they had gone to battle with one of the other villages in the Valley, and he felt fear. He sat straight up. 

He looked around, and saw not his warm room in his home, but the strange surroundings of the little inn he had spent the night in. He felt a stab of homesickness already, but that was easily forgotten as his clearing mind registered the fighting outside. he remembered: the Berbils! The strange little people he had met the day before, he was in their village. Was it under attack? Maybe he had been wrong about the place being forgotten. But it had looked so desolate, so... 

Well he wasn't going to get any answers hanging around. He stood, felt a vague nausea that he sometimes got in the morning before he had eaten anything, and took a deep breath of the fresh air from outside. Then he ran downstairs. 

The female was not around, and so, clutching his duffel nervously, Saber stepped into the street. The boy's sensitive smell sense was greeted by smoke, and he heard the wailing cries from the strange Berbils as they ran to and fro, seemingly without purpose. He closed his nasal passage to the smoke, breathing from his mouth, and keeping to the buildings, skulked in search of the one that was called Robearbill to find out what was going on. He looked around frantically for some kind of attackers, but saw none yet. In fact, as he walked along the streets, all he saw were the Berbils running as if someone giant bird were swooping from the sky to attack them as they ran, but there was no one there. 

With a deepening sense of nervousness, Saber finally saw the little Berbil, shouting directions to get the people out of their homes in case they were hit, and Saber ran up to him. "Robearbill! What's happening?" 

"We-we-we-we arrrreee under attack!" He wailed, sending yet another Berbil to call for help. Saber had cringed at the sudden noises, jumped when one of the Berbils ran past him, but now, he sensed no danger, saw no danger. He frowned in puzzlement. "By who?" 

"Muuuutants!" the Berbil moaned fearfully. He ran across the street to exchange a hurried command with the bluish one. 

Saber looked after him in amazement. Mutants? Mutant whats? There was no one here but him and the Berbils! 

The boy was tense, but as he walked almost dazedly through the little town, watching the Berbils in their full-fledged panic, he began to see things. He saw that three or four of them would react at the same time as if they were being attacked from above. He would see exchanges of words between Berbils about something that seemingly only they could see. 

To his amazement, and a little to his disgust, he saw that the smoke he smelled was fire in some of the huts, but it appeared as if the Berbils were setting them themselves! Deliberately! A realization dawned on him. 

This _had_ happened before, when these "Mutants" Robearbill had spoke of existed, and his intuition the night before about the strange minds of these creatures being stuck in a time loop came back full force. They were acting out an event that happened probably thousands of years, maybe even more, ago. As to why they were setting fire to their own dwellings? They were probably the ones that had been hit in this attack, and they were recreating it. Saber felt sick and scared. The dual minds of these strange people scared him, even though they seemed, for the most part, like a peaceful people. 

It was a half hour or so of this, Saber watched the Berbils acting out their strange ritual, and wondered how many different attacks they had in their memory. The huts were all patched, as if they all had been hit at one time or another; in this case set afire by their own citizens. None paid him any mind, as he played no part in this reenactment, he might as well have not been there at all so far as most were concerned. They simply played out their drama around him. He felt as if he were walking through a battle of spirits. 

Later that night, after the one sided battle was over and many of the Berbils were cleaning up, Saber asked Robearbill about what had happened. He had been deeply unnerved by the experience, although everything seemed normal now...or at least as normal as these creatures got. 

"Sometimes the Mutants attack our village," Robearbill explained. "They do it mostly just to cause pain, and panic. They are cruel creatures. Did they attack you, Saber?" 

"N-no...Robearbill...there was no one there!" 

"But therrrre was," Robearbill said. "They like to come and strafe our village, and laugh when we run for ourrrr livvves." 

Saber gave up. He understood that he would never convince the little guy of what he was saying. He was part machine, like the machines that the villagers used to pump water, only these ones worked on their own. Part of them lived, but the parts that were machine stopped working right a long time ago. It gave him the creeps. 

Saber did not eat supper at the little inn that night. He had eaten breakfast, and the food had had that same strange metallic/chemical taste of the fruit. He did not want any more of it. He felt queasy. He thought it to be fear, fear of what had happened, fear of what might lie ahead if such strangeness was here, so close to home. 

He also felt a deep sadness for the little Berbil people. So forlorn all the time. 

After writing every detail of the day in his journal, Saber fell asleep once more at the Inn. He had almost lost his nerve, and started on the path that would lead him back home. He could go home, take his punishment, and be safe. He could forget this isolated little group of people that had lived so long that their minds had begun to live past events as if they were real. He wanted nothing more to do with the strange minds. 

But then he did think of what his parents would do. He would be thrashed again, they would have lost trust in him. He could imagine them saying when they thought he could not hear, "He was so serious about exploring, the little scholar did not make it more than a day before coming home." They would have been worried, but amused, too. He could imagine Iyen laughing at him, saying it figured he didn't have the guts to go any farther than a day's travel from the valley. That decided it. He would not go back. If he was to endure any punishment by his parents for this, he would make it worth it. 

But he did not want to stay here any longer. The whole place had an air of sorrow, of weariness. He felt for the Berbil creatures, but there was nothing he could do to help. The next morning, Saber said his good-byes. The dozen or so Berbils that had greeted him at first were there. 

Robearbill gave the young boy some supplies for his journey: some of the candifruit that had been freshly picked, some simple tools, an old bow and arrow that looked like it would break if he tried to use it, (and it did when he tried it out later) and a refill of his waterskin. 

"Please come back and   
We are Berbils from the planet Robear!   
visit us again, Saber. We like to have visitorrrs." 

Robearbill's halting speech was again doubled by the other track of speech inside his round head as he said his good-byes. Saber nodded and shook the little creature's hand as he slowly walked from the village along a road that was shown to him. he could tell that not twenty yards into the forest, it was overgrown enough to be unrecognizable, but he started along it anyway. 

Saber threw the fruit away when he was out of sight of the strange Berbils. His nausea from the day before had not gone away, and he did not want the acrid-tasting fruit. Most of it was delicious, but that bitter undertaste left a bad taste in his mouth. 

He found that the little hand tools the Berbils had given him were useless, and the brittle wood broke when he tried to use them. It had been a nice gesture, but useless. The only thing that he really used was the water, which tasted fair enough. 

Saber traveled through forest until nightfall. By then he was panting heavily, when he should not have been. He had taken several rests to settle his uneasy stomach, but now there was no appeasing it. The boy threw his pack down, staggered a few feet to his left, and threw up what little he had eaten. He grimaced and turned away. He hated throwing up. He hated the way it made his stomach cramp, and seem to curl up inside his belly. 

When he was sure he was through, he picked up his pack again. It felt like it weighed much more than it did, and he staggered again as he slung it over his back. _Now_ he wanted to go home. He was ready to throw the whole thing in right now but he was two days from his home, if not more. He would be a long time getting back, and he had to rest. 

Groaning, as the sun made its last brave show of the day through the leaves, Saber cast his pack to the ground again, and knelt in the cooler leaves. He was sweating, even though in the trees it was not hot, and still he breathed hard. With a small whimper, he lay on the floor of the forest, his mostly bare skin lying on soft leaves and grass. He used his duffel for a pillow. 

He had taken Drii's blanket, his hintrin, and now wrapped it around himself as he curled up on the ground. He clutched the top with one hand, his belly with the other. He had already vomited up everything he had eaten, and now when his stomach seized, he brought nothing up. Only the painful dry heaves still wracked his body and he moaned miserably. 

He cried for a while, and now only panted, curled up in the green blanket that his brother had given to him to take on the journey. Usually when he was sick, his mother was there with a cool cloth, or hot tea, or the herbs that the healer recommended, but now he was alone in the strange woods where none of his people had ever gone before. 

Saber cringed at every noise of the night creatures. Cried out at every sound within ten feet. his vivid imagination saw all manner of monster lurking in the shadows of the night as he lay curled up beneath a tree, shaking with fear, and not just that. 

For the first time since he was old enough to write, he made no entry in his journal, and only slept when his body was too exhausted to keep him awake. 

Part 8: A First Lesson 

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	8. First Lesson

  
8 

A First Lesson 

After only a few hours of sleep, Saber awoke to the early dawn, shaking, like he did when he had a fever. Disoriented, he let his eyes wander around the forest, to the trees that surrounded him; and the pleasant sound of birds reached his ears. For a moment, he forgot, and sat up. A moment later he was back on the ground, a wave of nausea so strong it almost hurt him washing over his body, and he groaned. Getting slowly to his hands and knees, Saber crawled into the underbrush and threw up the water he had taken the night before. 

He shook, sweating, as he knelt and finished, and then began to cry. He wanted to go home, to have his mother comfort him, but he could not have that. They probably were looking for him, searching in the valleys between the towns, asking the other villages about him. He wondered if they were worried. 

Once he was sure that he would not throw up anymore, he crawled back to his pack and pulled his journal out. Taking the writing stick in one hand, he briefly wrote what had happened the day before. The script was shaky and almost illegible, but at least there. He shoved it back in and lay back down. 

Saber lay for a while trying to shake the nausea, and finally it abated enough for him to stand. Dragging his duffel behind him, he began to walk, and hoped he was going in the direction of home. When he was sick, his directional ability never worked right, and he did not even know where home was now, but he was trying to get back now. Illness was not something that he had thought about when he left the Valley. And now there was a bitter taste in his mouth that he could not get rid of. 

Saber traveled as far as he could, stopping every few minutes for a long rest. By the time the sun was on the norther, setting, he could go no farther. Waves of dizziness had assaulted him throughout the day, and now were too severe for him to walk. The boy staggered, collapsed in the thick forest, the duffel rolling a foot away, his waterskin falling from his belt to land next to him. Saber whimpered as the whole forest seemed to twist and recede from him as if he were suddenly very small and the forest loomed up, twisted, distorted, and he shut his eyes tight. 

The boy's stomach was cramping up badly, and he cried out in pain as it did, curling up tight on the soft forest floor. He had finally placed the bitter taste earlier in the day: it was the same as was in the Berbils' fruit. Had they given it to him on purpose? No, he did not think that they had. Their whole network of overgrown crops was probably bad. Even if he told them what happened, they probably would not comprehend. But he was not sure that he _would _ever get back there. The boy was very frightened. He was afraid he was going to die. At one miserable point, he almost wished he would. 

Throughout the night, and well into the next afternoon, Saber drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes moaning or crying; other times when he was less cognizant, only thrashing in his sleep, or tossing and turning. Once or twice, when his stomach had calmed and his fever was not raging, he would lie still, whimpering. 

It was almost sundown the next day when Saber awoke without crying out in pain or trying to throw up. He cautiously sat up, brushing the leaves from his skin and scant clothing, and brushing off the bugs that had decided to play on him. He was still shaking, but this mostly just from fear and the aftermath of being sick. He still felt woozy, but at least now he was not seeing things distort and twist in front of his eyes. He had missed two days in his journal, and had been unconscious for much of it. 

Now, even as he had to lie back down, he pulled his journal from his pack once again. With a shaking hand he brought it up to date, using many colorful words. He was not strong enough to sit up for long but his mind had cleared, and he was feeling angry and homesick. He had never gotten that sick for so long before. 

Scrawling out the last of the entry, Saber drank shakily from his waterskin, closed his eyes again, and went to sleep. 

He awoke late in the afternoon to find that he felt better even than the night before. He was able to stand, even with the duffel. He moved slowly but he moved on, and he found that now that he was feeling better he still _wanted_ to move on. He was lost now; he might be able to get his bearings later but he could not go home right now even if he wanted to. He almost felt proud. He had gotten through what he was sure was a bad illness by himself and he was all right now. 

Although still he shook a little, and he had to go slow, he was able to eat a little bit that night from his supplies from home without throwing it up. Eventually the shaking stopped, and he was well again. 

Saber traveled for several days through the woods. His food supply was gone,and now he had to worry about what he was going to eat. This was another problem than he had not expected to have, as he had not expected to be gone that long. But now it looked like he was going to be gone a long, long time. He had figured a week; and it was already more than that. He felt homesick, but at the same time he felt excited. This was what he had always wanted to do: to explore, to see new places, to not have to work so hard at the studies he hated so much to be something he did not want to be. 

He was also running out of journal papers. He had written far more than he usually did in the face of these new adventures. The last thing he was running out of was water. "Great," he muttered to himself. He wished it would rain. At least then he could drink the rainwater, but it had been hot and dry the past few days. 

It was the eighth day from his home when his last of the food supplies ran out, and his water was down to a drop, even having eaten and drunk only the barest minimum. He had been weak after his three days of sickness from the tainted fruit and had not eaten then, but still his supply had not lasted long. He had eaten berries and fruits along the way, ones that he recognized and that smelled right. Ones that also grew in his valley. That had helped with the food, but water he needed. He needed it badly. He had had none now for almost twenty-four hours, and he was starting to feel the effects. 

But now as he walked, he thought... Yes! He heard it! He heard running water from somewhere! 

Walking more quickly now, Saber headed for the sound and was very surprised to find not a stream, but a river easily thirty times as wide as any warrior's height. Letting out a delighted laugh, Saber ran to the water's edge, sniffed it to see if it was safe, and drank long and deep. He drank until he felt dizzy and almost fell in. 

Then he lay back on the bank of the river with a silly grin on his face. Saber thought about the stream he and his brother swam in often and that naturally enough led to thought about his family. He felt bad worrying them, he honestly did, but he had always wanted to be an adventurer, an explorer, and no one understood. Not even his friends his own age did. They all did as they were told, as their people wanted them to, and since most of them trained to fight, they were happy! But he did not. 

The only one that ever came close to understanding how he felt, the need for adventure was old Nenda, the chief of the Bruter village on the other side of the valley. But he had strengthened even in that short time since he last confided journeying to the Western Boarder. He had gotten through a crisis on his own, something that he would not have thought he could do before, and something that no one else would have thought the young scholar-to-be would have been able to do either. And he had been away from home a long time, in unfamiliar territory. Even in the short time he had been gone he had experienced much. 

After lying down for a while and simply enjoying having water, Saber stripped his clothing off; his headband, armbands, and the belt he was using to carry some of his things. He jumped into the calm waters, laughing as he surfaced, shaking his long hair of the water and sending it flying in shining droplets. He had been outside continuously in the hot summer weather, and been running out of water. It simply felt good to be able to have so much he could swim in it. He liked to swim, and it was one of the few physical things he was good at. 

_And_ it felt wonderful to not be sick. He would not eat something again without checking it _first._

The young traveler played in the waters of the great river for nearly an hour, then got out to lie in the sun, letting its rays dry him off. He was in no hurry. He was eager to see more, yes, but he did not have to be anywhere, he didn't have to make it home by dark, and he had all the time in the world. This was ultimate freedom. No school, no obligations, nothing. And right now under the warm sun, it felt great. 

Once he was clothed again and on his way, Saber walked along the banks of the river. The other side, so far as he could see, was more of the same: a high bank lined with trees. The middle of the stream was moving slowly, lazily, as if it too had nowhere to go. He had seen a few ripples here and there but not seen any fish. 

He had never been good at fishing anyway, and so did not hope to catch one. He just wanted to see what they looked like a week away from the Valley. He was seeing things no one ever had before. Before, the valley had been his world. 

The boy was walking along, feeling better than he had since he struck out, and daydreaming as he walked. He was imagining what lay ahead. He did not notice when something slide by languidly in the water not ten feet from where the small boy walked. 

He knew it a moment later, however, when he turned to face a splash and a dozen rows of needle sharp teeth coming straight for him. Saber screamed in utter shock and startlement, and fell backwards on his rear in the mud. "What is that?!" he shrieked, even though there was no one to answer. 

The thing had leapt for him, saw that it would not be able to reach with this jump, and with an impossible feat of gymnastics whipped itself around to land several yards into the river. Saber's brief glimpse of it had shown it to look like a great gray fish, with the huge legs of an insect sprouting unnaturally from its sides, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. He scrambled to his feet and took off running into the trees. He looked back once, panting, to see the hellish thing jump once more and disappear now that its potential meal was gone. 

Saber was shaken after that. He stayed far away from the river, close enough only to keep it in his sight as he followed it. He'd darted in once to fill his waterskin, but that was it. 

As he began to relax and recover from the near miss of the great killer fish-thing, Saber began to wonder if this was what the world was: this endless vista of trees and river. He had seen nothing else, and wondered how long he would have to travel before getting into different lands, if there _were_ different lands. He knew of the rocky wastes to the north, the great firepits and the demons with their powers but that was all he had seen. Was there such a thing as other lands? Were there yet other things he had never seen before? He saw nothing else during the whole day, but right before nightfall, when it was still light enough to see, he saw something that made him gasp. 

Even at this distance, he could tell that it was broken, but even so, what an object! What a great, massive thing it must be, like the plaything of a mythical god's child. 

It stood high up, into a mountain; it was another wonder to the young boy used only to the forest, and the two cliffs that bordered his valley, and he could not clearly see what it was. The top was cracked, and trees grew everywhere, nearly obscuring it. Vines covered the great thing, and Saber could see that he was many days away from it. But his heart raced. He was sure it was manmade, and the few glimpses he could catch through the mountain and the trees. The rest looked like forest; only forest, and was easily ignored for the stone wonder in the distance. 

He suddenly had a destination. 

With a wild surge of anticipation in his mind and his heart, Saber made his journal entry on the last parchment, describing what he saw, what he smelled, what he heard. "I will try and get to this great...thing by the time the week ends," the child wrote. "And maybe I'll find something else to write on because my parchment ran out!" Closing the homemade booklet, Saber made his bed in the warm leaves in that wooded valley, with a spectacular view of the stars spanning above him. Gazing at these as he often did at home, he fell asleep with a great feeling of contentment. 

Black Widow Shark   
shark 

Part 9: Dark Observances 

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	9. Dark Observances

  
9 

Dark Observances 

Elsewhere, miles and miles from where the young boy lay under an impressive scope of stars, someone stirred. Something...something was different. Something was not as it always was. _Something_ was posing a...difficulty. He knew this from the simple fact that he had been called after decades of rest. 

The last one had been nearly seventy seasons ago. He had been a stupid fool with only visions of glory in his head. He was strong, a brawler, but no warrior. He knew no honor. He knew no pride, only his inflated ego. 

He had been easily defeated, and his body shredded then set to the vultures. 

There had been one before that only a couple of decades, if even that. She had been an honorable, _worthy_ opponent that had challenged him. Honor was not so important; what was important to him was if the other was a worthy foe. If the other fought with skill, and for a purpose, be it evil or no. If the other took pride in his fighting, and his reason for fighting, if he was strong in body, and in will..._then_ he was a worthy opponent. 

The female had been difficult to subdue. He had had to take her down with everything he had, and the battle of wills had been long. It had set him to rest for many, many days. But she had been worthy. He had sent her body back to her village; the viscous scars from their long battle would serve as a warning to any others who tried, but he had not set her for the animals to devour. He had given her to her people for a decent burial. 

But this time, something was different. He had strength, but not of the body. Not yet. But he felt strength of will and of spirit. This would have to be kept track of, and carefully. Receding into the darkness, he watched. 

------ 

A good distance away in the other direction, a small group talked inside a giant fortress that had set down in a barren, rocky region. The firerock pits flamed and glowed outside, the acidic-smelling fumes drifting in and out the opened windows. It was a good smell for those within. 

"Hey, look at this!" one exclaimed, his metal armor glinting a lurid red in the light of the nearby pits. He was looking at the sensors as the glow came in from the open windows. 

"What?" A female with blue skin and white hair looked at the screen irritably. 

The short, fat one in armor laughed, bouncing once on the new cyber implants that had replaced his feet. Most of his clan had the cybernetics put in, as it enhanced their already great strength. Only one of their dense makeup and intense strength could gather enough power to use such a thing. His legs were still there, but fused to them all the way around were the triple pistons. "Look at this village. The humans are looking for something." 

"They don't call themselves humans anymore," the female said, but did look interestedly at the screen. "What are the primitive freaks doing?" 

The male snorted. "You'll never believe it, Icerii. One of their people went beyond their borders. Sounder traveled there and listened from beyond the outskirts of the town, and it's one of their children that made the journey!" 

Icerii raised a brow and then laughed. "But are their borders not forbidden to them? Even now they only travel the northern one to give us our offerings." She snorted derisively. "What would make a small squirt so bold as to go beyond their other?" 

The male shrugged. "I don't know. But from the way Sounder made it out to be, it's the same one they brought to the last of their gatherings." He grinned unpleasantly. "The one whose father Chilldon iced." 

This did raise some surprise on the woman's face. "Yessss, I remember that," she hissed, and watched the villagers. "I remember the brat; he wet himself in fright." She laughed harshly. She saw that they were still sending out search teams, and a group had even searched the Western boarder, but none dared cross it. "Those superstitious fools," she spat. "If they were not so ignorant, they would have found him by now. But they will not leave the village." 

The male looked up at her with a frown. "What do _you_ care if they find the brat or not?" he asked. 

She shrugged. "I don't. But stupidity angers me. They should just be wiped off the face of Fourth Earth." She looked for a minute. "Earthquake, can you find the kid that left on the scanners?" 

Earthquake shook his head. "No. I tried, but from what Sounder says, the child has been missing for several days. They think him dead." 

Icerii snorted. "And he probably is. If something in the woods did not get him, hunger probably did." Having lost interest, she moved away from the screen. "Still, it would have been interesting." 

"Yeah." Earthquake watched the screen a little while longer, then also left. He wished it was time for a gathering. He felt like terrorizing the stupid villagers who thought them to be demons. They feared them. "And rightly so," he said to himself. "They are no match for the mighty Lunattacks." 

------ 

Gods, don't these miserable trolls ever shut up? one of the others thought. She stared at the ground in stony silence as an _extremely _small Lunattack chewed her out for a mistake she had made earlier in the day. It was a good thing there was only one of the lunar Clan Lunattacks left here on this mudball of a planet: Infra did not think she could bear two of them. And from what she had heard, it had always been females that ruled the Lunattacks of Fourth Earth. 

"Well?!" the pint sized thing demanded. "What do you have to say for yourself?" Sitting atop a large brute   
Lunattack, the squirt put her hands on her scrawny hips. 

Knowing that any argument would get her eardrums in further peril, Infra sighed. "Sorry, Fintii," she grumbled. "I didn't do it on purpose. How was I to know Psycho was on the outside cleaning the engine wells when I blasted off?" 

Fintii, which was a name meaning tiny warrior in Plundaarian, shrieked and struck the Sight Clan Lunattack on the head with her crop, as her mount growled threateningly. Infra yelped in indignation and stepped back from the beast. "What!" 

"Is that what you insolent, overconfident fools call him?" she demanded. His real name was Psychren, but all the other Lunattacks called him Psycho. He was, too. Get him with someone he had permission to pummel, and he went nuts. He did horrible things to the prisoners, things even most the others thought horrible. 

Infra scowled. "He doesn't care. You know him, he's proud of the name." 

Fintii narrowed her eyes at the other, then turned her beast away. "Very well. What are these reports of the humans leaving their valley?" 

Infra shrugged. "I'm not sure, Fintii. One of the local children left their village by way of the west, into the forest." 

"What's out there?" 

"Nothing but forest so long as we know." Even the Lunattacks had forgotten the isolated little colony of Berbils a few miles from the Erthrins' Valley. "He'll probably die out there, if he hasn't already. And their people are too frightened to go after him." She laughed derisively. "Pathetic." 

The small leader also laughed. "You're right about that...but I want this situation monitored. If you locate the brat, tell me and keep me up to date on what he is doing. Also, watch the others of their village. We don't want them getting ideas of leaving their Valley. Let them think that's all there is to their world. If they start expanding out, they may get ideas, and be harder to control." 

Infra nodded. "Got it. I'll go tell the others. Sounder was listening from the outskirts at what the adults were saying. It's some little shit called Saber. They brought him to the last Gathering, but I wasn't there." 

Fintii nodded. "Fine, fine. Just keep me informed. You are dismissed." 

"Gee thanks," she mumbled as she left. "Little troll turd." 

"WHAT?!" 

"Oh kkrekk!" As Fintii's beast crashed through the closed doorway with a speed she would not have thought possible, Infra took off down the hallway, the beast in pursuit. Well she hadn't meant THAT to be heard! 

An hour later, and after Infra had been caught and appropriately thrashed, she was in the hot engine room with a handful of slaves taken from the villages around the planet. There were some humans, the strange more feral creatures they had become to adapt to the air changes after the Great Cataclysm, and a couple of the Bruter tribe, all chained up and working. There was even a Lunattack that had betrayed the others, and been made a slave. 

And now she was stuck for a week of engine room duty working with these lowlifes. 

She heard the crack of a whip above her, and a male voice calling out, "Stoke faster, slave!" 

Infra looked up and glared. "Shut up, Chilldon!" she hissed. She gave him a threatening glare. She hated him, why did he have to be on guard duty down here? That was the last thing she needed. 

He leered at her and stood, the leapt down to where she stood, covered in soot, glaring at him. "You're beautiful when you're angry," he told her, and she growled and took a swing at him. 

She was fast! But he had anticipated it, and leapt back lithely. He frowned in mock anger, and raised the whip threateningly. "Now, now, slaves who rebel get themselves in trouble." With a malicious glint in his eyes, he narrowed those eyes and blew a stream of icy breath at the Sight Clan Lunattack. 

Infra yelped in surprise, and also jumped back, but any adult Ice Clan member that was trained for fighting and battle, could strike a moving target. Infra yelped again, this time in anger, as her bosom iced over solid. "You miserable bastard!" she said in furious indignation. 

Chilldon snickered, and gave her a suggestive leer. "I think I like you like that!" 

Infra was about to show him how amusing she thought this situation when she heard a burst of surprised laughter from above. One of the other two guards, her own younger brother, had caught sight of what happened. "Watch it, punk!" she warned. The adolescent Lunattack covered his mouth with both hands, dropping the whip he held. "Sorry, Infra,' he said. "I couldn't help it." 

She could see his body still shook with laughter, an she narrowed his eyes, vowing to kick his sorry behind later. Then she turned her attention back to Chilldon. "Thaw them!" she demanded, gesturing at her frozen bosom. 

His snickering threatening to turn into laughter, he only looked at the frozen breasts and held his own hand to his mouth. "Colder than a witch's -" 

SMACK! Infra had hauled off and smacked him across the face before he could finish the nasty remark. "It's starting to hurt, you asshole!" she said, about ready to pummel him. 

Chilldon growled and lunged for her when a shrill voice stopped them both short. It was probably a good idea. Infra was no wimp, but she had taken a beating thanks to the owner of that voice. "What is going on here?" 

Infra only glared at Chilldon, and he hid a smirk. "Nothing, Fintii..." 

Fintii looked at the dirty deed and rolled her eyes. "Thaw them Chilldon. And save your childish pranks for when you are NOT on guard duty." 

The icy Lunattack did as he was told and thawed the mammaries, and returned to his post. But Infra could see him and her brother snickering. She'd get even with them later, she vowed. 

By that night, all Lunattacks in the many-times repaired and upgraded Skytomb had been told of the situation with the little human colony to the south, and were told to be on the lookout as they roamed the planet, acting as the leg-breakers of the planet. The Lunattacks had been lords of Fourth Earth now for thousands of years, surely they could handle a task such as this. But having seen that incident between Chilldon and Infra, Fintii wondered. 

Infra, down in the furnace area, after insulting Fintii   
Infra 

Part 10: Retrogression 

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	10. Retrogression

  
10 

Retrogression 

Saber had miscalculated. He'd thought himself a week, maybe nine or so days from the object in the distance, but he had not known just how big it was. As he steadily made his way towards it, he started to get an idea on its size. It was big. _Really_ big. He'd been travelling a week already and was not even half the distance. But he was starting to see its shape, and to him it almost looked like it was shaped like a dog sitting down maybe, or a giant rodent. He could see from his low position in the valley, that it had claws big enough to knock a giant Red tree from its roots and throw it across Fourth Earth like a spear. One was broken in half, but the other looked intact. He wondered what it was. He had thought it to be a building, but now that he saw its shape, he was thinking more a statue, or an idol. Had it not been broken he might have thought it to be alive. 

The young boy had learned a great deal in his travels. He had learned to hunt the small animals he recognized, and figured out how to make a fire from fragmented memories of eavesdropping on the warriors when they gave their lessons, and experimetation. Even in that short time, with a combination of observation and his instinctive, natural direction finder, he had learned that some of the stars stayed still more or less, and some set like the sun. He understood he could_ use_ those to find his way if he had to. He had been sleeping on the ground with his duffel for a pillow, and if it was cool at night he used his brother's hintriin to cover himself with. 

Saber got homesick more than he wanted to. Especially sometimes at night when he would climb a high tree and look in the direction of his valley, he wanted to be home, safe in his bed, only _dreaming_ about something like this instead of doing it. He was lonely. Almost a moon-time now, he had been alone, with only the woods and the creatures in it to keep him company. Was this the life of a traveler? Of an explorer? He was not sure at these times that he wanted to be one anymore. 

And then sometimes, he felt guilty for leaving his family to worry about him. He should have told Drii to give him a week or so before telling his family where he was, and then maybe they would not be so worried. He wished there was a way to send a message to them to tell them that he was all right. 

But then in the daytime, he would find something new here or there, and he would look at the great thing in the distance, and think of all he had done and seen, and he would think it the greatest life. Were he to tally it all up he would have decided it was worth it. 

One moon-time exactly away from his home, Saber awoke to find it was raining. It was raining hard, and the thunder and lightning raged, to boot. Saber sighed. Here was yet _another_ thing he had not thought of when embarking on this journey. It was the middle of summer, and the rain was warm, but he did not particularly like rain, and wasn't too happy to see it doing so when he could not find shelter from it. He thought of the leather cloak he had brought in case of rain, but never thought it would rain this hard! The cloak would only weigh him down once it got soaked. 

He was thankful that his journal parchments, and the smooth, rubbery bark he'd found to use as his journal when he ran out, were waterproof; and the writing sticks would not run. He had nothing else that could not take a wetting, but _he_ did not want to take a wetting. The leather vest he wore felt really nasty on his lightly furred skin, and he took it off. 

It rained energetically for two days, as it usually did on the planet after all its destruction and eras. Saber had been worried, as the lowlands he was in were flooding, and he was finding fewer and fewer safe places to be, but on the third day it began letting off, and he was traveling through a moderate shower. At least the sun was more visible. In the thick trees, the rain had made it almost as dark as night! 

As Saber sloshed around, barefoot as he always went, he stopped short as something big ran across his path, almost too fast for him to see at first. He had not been paying attention. 

As he looked on in confusion, the thing ran by again, and he caught a glimpse of pink eyes, feral, and crazed looking. Saber felt a chill run down his spine as he tried to place the thing. He had never been good in life lessons, he could never remember the animals, and their colors and sounds, but he was quite sure he had never seen anything like that before. He hurriedly brought out his life-book and thumbed through it, and the chill came again. This thing was not in there. He put it back. 

It almost looked like a human in the body, with whitish, wrinkled skin, and legs that looked like that of a human as well, but far too small, like a man who had been crippled and could no longer use his legs. It had a wild, matted mane of bushy, brown-white fur that also framed its face. "What in the..." Saber had a strong feeling of unease as he looked at it. It was wrong. Maybe it was the fact that it looked too much like his own people, running around like a feral beast, even though it was more the size of the Berbils. He didn't like it. 

When the thing passed again, Saber increased his pace through the mud. He wanted distance away from the strange thing. 

But then he turned around, a vague feeling of being watched overcoming his mind. He took a step backwards as he saw three more of the things crouched on the ground, looking at him viscously. The boy swallowed hard as he looked at the glaring things. They were feral beasts, of that he was sure, but they had hands and legs like an Erthrin. Their eyes were pink, their skin light, like sometimes when a different child was born of his people. Their skin and hair were white, their eyes pink. They had to be cared for differently, and could not go outside in the sun long like other children, because the light skin burned in the sun. 

He wanted to get away, but found himself reluctant to turn his back on the creatures. They had claws, and probably fangs by the look of them. "Go away," he told them in a shaking voice. They only narrowed their eyes and bristled as if ready for a fight. 

Saber bit his lip and slowly put down his duffel, feeling for the dagger, pulling it out quickly. 

A noise from behind startled him, and four more joined the others, and he could see others coming in, all looking at him as if he were a beast himself, coming to kill them in their dens, or wherever it was they lived. He saw a few with little ones cradled in their long arms, and thought that they should have been cute, but they only made him shudder. The creatures reminded him of the sheep the ranchers raised for their wool, only crossed with an Erthrin. They looked like some horrible experiment of breeding with the two species. 

Saber decided he did not want a fight with these things, and ran. But before he got three steps, he heard a yell behind him that almost sounded like a language, and before he could turn around, something warm hit him in the back, sending him asprawl, and he yelled himself. The duffel went flying as he turned around to look into the eyes of one of them, eyes that were not sane, eyes that held no reason or pity. He had the horrible feeling that these _had_ been sentient creatures at some point in the dim, dim past. Before the cataclysm. 

But now it was clawing at him with fingers that bore small, somewhat sharp tips, and Saber yelled again as another jumped on him, attacking in the same way. "KILL!" one of them shrieked, and Saber knew his guess had been right. 

He thrashed as they jumped at him, and threw the little thing off as he gained his feet. He snatched his dagger and took a swipe at them as they came in one more time, and they jumped back, only to have one behind him jump at him again. 

He whirled again to slash, and he could see that these being possessed _some_ intelligence, as it was angering them to see their...countrymen? Tribesmen? getting cut by the boy's blade. More attacked at a time, and Saber was feeling an intense thread of panic as he began to be overwhelmed. They were only three fourths his height, but there were over a dozen of them, jumping, clawing at him. He had already been scratched up, and he was getting scared. They were swarming him! "Get away from me!" he shouted, then spat a word he had never used before. "Bastard!" 

Saber tried again to run, but cried out as a sharp pain went through his leg, and he dropped his dagger. Sprawling the ground, he felt a heavy weight on that leg, and gripping little hands; one of the little creeps had bitten him! Not able to find his dagger, he punched it as hard as he could. With what could have been a foreign curse, it fell away, but Saber was on the ground now, and vulnerable, and he screamed in fear as they swarmed over him. 

Part 11: Guardians 

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	11. Guardians

  
11 

Guardians 

The boy fought desperately to get out from the pile of angry creatures, and became more frightened. He kept screaming at the things to get off of him, but if they heard, he did not think that they understood. 

He cried out again as another of the creatures bit him, then heard a shrill shriek as someone missed with a claw or a tooth and got one of their fellows. Those two started fighting, and soon Saber felt the mass of little creatures lessen as they joined in the fray. Soon he was able to crawl through the mud away from them, then stagger to his feet to a safe distance. 

Bleeding from a dozen different places, the nearly hysterical child got a good distance away and climbed up a tall tree to find a nook where he could safely rest. He almost was not able to make it that far, but when he did, he collapsed in the large nook, panting, tears streaming from his eyes. 

Even as he climbed, the albino creatures fought viscously, many yelling, "KILL! KILL!" in a hoarse, high-pitched voice. Saber watched this with a disgusted fascination at the viscious beings, and he shuddered as he looked at the mothers holding the young. They stayed away from the fight, but the expression on their semi-sentient faces was one of rage. They were angry they could not join the fight because of their little ones. 

Angry they could not hurt. 

This went on for only a few seconds when one of the things, one of the bigger ones, turned slowly around, realizing their intended target was no longer there. His pitiless eyes met Saber's, and he swallowed hard. Soon the lone creature ran over to his tree, followed by most of the others, and jumped up, trying to reach the Erthrin boy. But Saber had climbed high, and the first branch was out of their reach. Saber had been able to jump, but these beings' legs were far too weak. He clutched one of the branches, not sure at the moment he would be able to climb any higher. 

However, he did not have to. After a while, the sheep creatures realized they could not get to their target, and ran away in their pack to continue their aimless, murdering way. 

Saber's eyes wandered back to the one that had been attacked. He lay still, and even from there, the boy could see he was not breathing. He turned his gaze away. his duffel was thrown off to one side, thankfully still tied shut. They had not been able to open it, and had not spent a lot of time trying. They had been too busy with their crazed attack. 

It was a while before Saber felt safe enough to climb down from his refuge. He thought the attackers not quite sentient enough to figure out that he had to come down sometime or starve to death, but still he wanted to make sure. He landed, then fell to the ground dizzily, holding his arm, which had been laid open by one of the creatures' teeth. With eyes that did not seem to want to focus, the boy hunted for the dagger, finding it finally in a rain-made streamlet of water a few inches deep. He stumbled over to his pack and put it back in, and tried to lift it...but suddenly it was too heavy to hold, and he fell once more. 

Saber did not know what was happening to him, but he was badly frightened, and tried once more to stagger away with the pack. He made it a few dozen yards, dragging his duffel behind him before collapsing for the last time, and this time he could not get up. His head, now too heavy for him to hold up, fell into the soggy grass, and he blacked out, thinking before he lost consciousness that if those creatures came back and were still mad, Saber would join their dead packmate. 

------ 

When Saber awoke, the first thing he noticed was that it was raining still. The second thing he noticed was that he hurt a lot, and stifled a whimper of pain...then he figured, who was there to see? and he whimpered aloud. 

When one was in pain whimpering sometimes made it hurt just a little less. 

Saber opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was still lying on the ground, but the ground was only slightly damp, not saturated as it should have been since it was still raining. He looked down at his arm, which throbbed fiercely and saw that it had been bandaged. He frowned, puzzled. The leaves that had bandaged it, as soon as he moved, seemed to give off some kind of resin that made the bite wound numb a little. "What happened?" he said to himself. He looked up, and saw that he was in a leafy shelter that looked like it had been there a while. It was big enough to live in, and there were beds and the like made from the materials of the forest and cloth that looked old but clean and sturdy. There were no rips in it, unlike his own clothing. 

"Oh, you're awake, little one." said a gentle voice. 

With a startled yelp, Saber spun around on his backside to see who had spoken, jarring every open injury on his body. When his eyes focussed, they widened, and he started to shake He saw a thin pale female, with a star shape on her forehead, a long braid, robes, a staff., and his mind immediately flashed on the Gathering Day. He let out a fearful outcry and scrambled backwards. "G-get away from me!" he cried. "G-get away, I didn't do anything, don't freeze me!" 

The female did not approach the frightened, youth, but got on her knees to bring herself more to his level as he half sat, half lay on the leaves. "Easy, little one," she said in that same soft voice. "We mean you no harm. I think you mistake us for something else." 

As his fear abated a little bit, he could see this was not a demon from the rocky regions beyond the Northern Boarder, but she looked similar, No horns, but the birthmark on her forehead. However she was smaller, not much taller than he, and had a kind look about her. "I-I'm sorry...I thought...I thought you were a demon." 

She smiled. "It's all right, young one," she said, as he sat up. She slowly reached out a hand to help him, and he recoiled a little bit, but then let her. "People think that at first of me and my life-mate. We have lived for centuries, but have never harmed another creature." 

"C-centuries? But...but no one can live that long! Are...are you..." but the boy could think of nothing other than a demon that could live that long. And it was clear she was not a demon. 

"In this planet's first cycle, we were given eternal life by the great sorcerers of the world. We were given the task of looking out for the unicorns, because many evil men hunted them. As people became increasingly afraid of magic, we had to hide them, but now we have no need." 

Saber gazed at her as she told this short tale, transfixed by it. She was as good a storyteller as Nenda! "What...what are unicorns?" he asked. 

She smiled. "I will show you one. One of the others has just given birth, would you like to see them?" 

The boy nodded slowly. 

The woman smiled and made a strange call into the woods. A moment later, a pure white creature walked in, startling Saber a little bit. Then the baby stumbled in, still unsteady on his legs. "Don't be frightened. They are gentle creatures. They won't harm you." 

The mother, sensing the boy's alarm, walked slowly up to him and sniffed him a bit. Saber laughed a little and looked to the baby as he stumbled over and did the same, but she fell in his lap. Saber cried out a bit as it hurt his wounds, but the baby was little, and made a strange sound of startlement. Saber quickly got over his surprised hurt and reached out a hand to touch him. "Is it all right to touch him?" he asked. 

"Of course." 

He stroked the beautiful little creature's mane, and her fur, and touched carefully the budding horn on its head. "It's okay," he said to the colt, as it made another surprised sound. He got clumsily to his hooves again and sniffed the boy out. 

After a moment, Saber grinned at the unicorn keeper. "They're beautiful...they look like horses kind of...but the mama had two horns twisted together!" 

"Aye, they have changed a little over the centuries. they only had one at the beginning of their existence. So, young traveler, what happened to you? My life-mate found you a mile or so away from here, unconscious. You were attacked by something in the forest?" 

Saber bit his lip and shuddered, thinking of the encounter. He described to her the creatures, and what they had done, how they'd acted. "They kept screaming 'Kill Kill!'...it was...it wasn't...fun," he said. And that was an understatement. 

She nodded sadly. "The Bolkins," she said, shaking her head. "They used to be a decent race of people, and good friends of ours." Her mate had come up silently behind her as she spoke, and smiled at the boy He smiled uncertainly back. "Until the Great Cataclysm. That's what they are calling it this time." 

"What...what was it?" the boy asked. 

"A great poisoning of the air. It was an ancient weapon from a distant planet, that drifted through space to land here. A gas weapon. It changed the atmosphere, the air, so that it harmed life here." Saber was completely fascinated at this story. he had often wondered what made this to be called Fourth Earth. "This...it happened two times before, didn't it?" 

Both looked surprised. "You are a smart boy," the male said, in a voice as kind and gentle as his mate. He sat down in the grass. "In different ways, yes. At first it was the humans," he smiled. "your ancestors, that caused it. The next, a comet." Seeing the boy's puzzled look, he explained what a comet looked like. 

Saber stared, fascinated. "I'd love to see a comet!" he exclaimed. 

The woman spoke again. "I have not seen one of your people for so long, not since the last cycle of this earth. We only heard here and there of your existance. You look a little different." 

Saber was looking at her with dawning realization. "That's _why_ we look different, isn't it? Erthrins started being born with different outsides because the air changed, right? So we could live! I think a lot didn't though." 

"You're right," the female said sadly. "We have seen the destruction of many good people. And many bad people. The Bolkins were good people, but although the Great Cataclysm did not kill them, it changed their bodies. It hurt their minds, so now they are only partially sentient. They want only to kill." She had spoken in terms the young boy could understand. 

Saber took this information sadly, but with interest, and vowed to rmemeber it. He had already gotten so many pages of his journal that his pack was heavy with them. "I wish I could help them." 

"So do we, little one," the male said. "So do we. It cannot be done though, not even magic can reverse nature." 

Saber nodded solemnly. He was silent for a few moments and then said, "Thanks for saving me." 

The woman smiled. "You're welcome, young human. Come, you must be hungry." 

Saber stayed with the Unicorn Guardians for a couple of weeks. They talked, and made friends, and he spent a lot of time with the beautiful creatures themselves. The keepers seemed as glad of his company as he was of theirs, and he was reluctant to leave. They were people to talk to, and he felt safe with them. He told them what he was doing this far west, and what his village was like, and about his family. They told tales of days past, and of the first cycles of earth. Saber was amazed at the stories of great metal towers and flying carts, and ships that flew through space like a falling star. 

But finally, as his wounds had healed enough, he said he had to go. The unicorn keepers bid him a fond goodbye, and set the boy off with enough supplies for a week. His duffel was full, but he was able to carry it well enough. 

"When you return, please come here again. We would like to have your company." 

Saber smiled. "I will." He thanked his new friends again, meaning every word of it, and finally moved on, waving back to them as he left. He marked the place in his memory, and knew he could find it again, because he wanted to go there again and listen to their tales. He liked the gentle, ancient beings very much, and knew his people would too, when he got back to tell them. 

Now he was off, headed once more for the magnificent giant creature he had seen. He caught sight of it easily, and started off once more. 

One of the Bolkins that Saber fought   
Bolkin 

Part 12: New Realizations 

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	12. New Realizations

  
12 

New Realizations 

Saber was two days' southwest of the Unicorn Guardians' abode. He had asked them what the great structure in the distance was, but they had not told him. They had said he should find that out for himself. 

The boy hadn't been sure how to take that at first, but finally took it to mean that they simply thought him able to make the journey on his own, and that maybe they weren't supposed to give too much away. What he did not know was that the kind eternals understood that he _needed_ to do it on his own. 

He was now almost two months from his home and it was getting easier to be alone. He no longer felt such a crushing loneliness at night. The homesickness did not leave, and never would, but he was better able to handle it when it came. And that was good. 

He never did encounter any more of the Bolkin beasts; he could not think of the feral little manikins as sentient beings, and for that he was glad. He had seen quite enough of those for a few years. He looked down to the scars on his body, and thought that a few of them might stay there visible, even through his light fur. He felt kind of proud. They would be battle scars! At least they did not hurt anymore. That had been horrible. 

It was a week later when he arrived, or rather _almost_ arrived. The supplies that had been given to him by the guardians had run out, and he was back to fruits, berries, and hunting small animals. They had shown him how to make a spear out of a long, slim, sturdy branch, how to strip and sharpen it, and he had made one, and now carried it along with his pack. 

But now he faced a cliff. It was a long cliff, stretching as far as his eyes could see in either direction. It was steep. It was _tall. _ And Saber was not happy to see it! 

The boy scowled at the intimidating wall of dirt, and kicked its base, as if that would do it any good. It only got him a hurt foot. "Well how do I get up _this_ thing?" he wondered aloud, and sighed in aggravation. 

He guessed he would have to climb. 

The boy backed away several yards to look at it. There were many different platform type areas where the cliff leveled out. Some were less than a foot wide, some were a few yards. He could use those to rest on. 

Saber had rock climbed before. On one of his more adventurous days, he had tried to climb the cliff that made the eastern boarder, at the edge of Nenda's village. He had not gotten too far on the sheer cliff, but it had been fun. He still wondered what was on the other side of it. 

This cliff was not nearly so sheer. It had many handholds, and was on a slight angle, and so Saber was able to climb it. 

Had he come across this a month ago, he would not have had the strength to make it as far as the first platform. However, his physical strength had grown in those weeks, and he was able to make it, and rested there for a brief rest. When he felt able, he went on, careful not to look down at any point although he was tempted. 

But it was getting late, and he had to find a place where he could safely spend the night He was starting to panic a little bit as it started to get too dark to see. "I can't go back!" he had cried at one point, when he saw how far he had climbed. But he found one of the larger platforms of dirt and rock, and curled up as far from the edge as he could get. To be safe he built a fire on the non-flammable dirt, knowing that his body, even in sleep, would not let him roil across the fire. If he _did_ roll that far, it would wake him before he rolled off the edge. He hoped. 

Saber survived the night. 

Trying to keep the vague memories of a dream where he fell screaming to his death to the back of his mind, Saber resumed his weary climb. Although his was exhausted and his muscles screamed with thin pain from overtaxing them, he made it to the top after the one-and-a-half day climb. 

With the extraordinary balance his people had, Saber stood near the edge and looked out across the vista of trees and clearings that spread out before him. He stared, enrapt, for a long, long time at the view, and of what he could see. 

He could see for miles! He was high enough to look the birds in the eye! Never before had the young boy seen such a sight, and a wonderful sight it was to him. He had known nothing but the security of the valley, that somehow seemed confining now, looking out across such a vast landscape. Never before had he felt such freedom as he took a big breath of the fresh air. 

Although his direction-sense told him where his home was, he could not see it; although he did faintly see the outlines of the mountains he had seen in the bleak rock lands they had traveled into for Gathering Day. He could estimate. As he gazed, a realization struck the boy: this was a part of the valley! The cliffs of the Eastern and the Southern Boarders were one end of the valley, with the rock lands of the north and this endless forest of the west being the only ways out and this was the other end! This was a_ part_ of his valley! The little villages of his home were only one little part of a huge area. 

Oh, if only his people knew! Grinning he said in a low tone, "Hope you're looking up too, little brother. I've been drawing for you. I can't wait to get back and show you." 

It was true he could not wait to get home, but he was also thirsty for adventure, to see more lands, to see more creatures, and wonders of the worlds before this one. With that thought, he turned around. It was a little intimidating, this strange fortress. It looked kind of like a sitting dog, but not quite. He thought it a similar animal however. As he looked closely at the vast fortress, he could see that it had once been blue and white, but the white was grayish and dull now, cracking in so many places he could not count them all. 

The blue had faded to a twilight-gray color, like the sky before a storm, or right before nightfall. he looked to the left and saw three gigantic pieces of the gray-blue sunken into the ground, and looked up to the head of the beast. Most of it was not there, and what he could see of it looked jagged, as if the beast was hollow! Of course it was hollow, he realized. It was a fortress. He had been right! A fortress shaped like a beast! A curious examination of the blue pieces had shown them to be walls inside, little more, but the fortress had doors. 

Saber began to walk towards the fortress, at an eager pace, trembling with excitement as he neared it He already was thinking of what kinds of new things would be inside, what kind of objects would be in there, maybe even a clue as to whom might have built such a thing, and who might have lived there! 

Thinking only of this as he almost ran for the building, he did not see at first what happened. He only knew that some unseen force of air had all of a sudden thrown him to the ground, tumbling a few feet away. he blinked and shook his head. What had that been? 

He looked up to see the remains of the head moving! They were _moving!!_ "By the sky..." the child whispered in awe. He had never seen a building move before! One eye and part of the side of the face was all that was left up there, and Saber could see red, blue, and green...ropes? They looked like little ropes coming from the eye to somewhere inside. He could not see from the ground. But as he walked closer again, another of those explosions knocked him off his feet. 

Feeling somewhat alarmed now, Saber scrambled back to see the dirt had been blasted. He looked up and as he watched, a beam of red fire lanced down to strike the earth! Fire as straight and seemingly solid as the spear he carried! 

Saber backed off several yards as he watched this demon's eye fire its unnatural fire, then stop. It saw him! It must! Was it part living after all then? 

The boy eyed the door, then looked up again as the eye fired on a creature that happened to pass. He winced as the large canine thing yelped loudly, and sprawled in the dirt. He did not have to look at his breathing to tell he was dead. Saber gulped. He would have to figure out another way in. 

Part 13: Remnants 

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	13. Remnants

  
13 

Remnants 

Saber was not a fast runner. As he watched that poor animal die, he did not think that he could run fast enough to avoid having the same thing happen to him. He was sure now the beast had fired its flame directly at the animal because it was too close. He had not been as close, and so had received a warning. 

Still, Saber did not thing the building to be alive, at least he did not _think _so. He eyed a few good sized rocks and thought a moment, before picking one up and throwing it. Nothing happened. After a few moments, a bird flew by and it went on, unbothered. Maybe they were too small? 

Maybe he could get in from the top. It was high up and against the mountain but that would mean a long climb. Not nearly as long as the one that had taken him up here, but a good three hours at least. And his muscles still ached. 

Still, the boy's curiosity won out, and he began to climb. 

Saber had been right. The top was open completely, and within three yards of the mountain he stood on. Taking a running jump, he grabbed a jutting metal rod, panicking a minute as he thought he would not make it over. But finally he hauled himself over and crouched panting on the floor for a moment ebfore looking around. 

What he saw here was like nothing he had ever seen before. This whole area of the land was a world of wonders for the boy, and he eagerly took in everything with curious eyes. There were slanted metal tables with bright buttons and blank squares of glass here and there. It was rusted badly from rains and other weather, and cracked in many places. There was debris and leaves, and dirt, and even a birds' nest nestled into the metal that had once been a chair, but was now a wire framework whose thick vinyl had long since rotted off. 

Saber looked wonderingly at the floor, which had once been beautifully crafted, glossy tiles, but now was cracked and pitted, many of the little tiles gone But Saber could still make out the design on the floor. It was a red circle, with the black silhouette of an animal's head within. He grabbed some of the thin, tough bark and drew it out carefully with the writing stick that was now only a nub. He had seen some of the plants the sticks were made from; he would have to get a few. 

Saber looked the room over carefully, playing with the buttons that clicked, and pulling levers. This would be a great playground! Drii would love to come here and see this place. He wished his little brother was here now. Nothing in the room worked, although Saber did not know it. He thought they worked just fine. 

However, one thing did happen. Unwittingly, his hand hit the release for a drawer that popped out from underneath one of the consoles. The boy jumped back about three feet with a startled yelp, then giggled. 

It was creepy there, really. After the rainstorm, the clouds had been replaced with hot, humid summer weather once more. And here the air was completely still. Saber felt as if he were peeking into the spirits' realm. 

He crept forward to peer in the drawer, and saw nothing but little metal disks that had holes in the center of them. He grinned. That was the kind of thing Drii would like. There were about a dozen of them, and he took them all out of the little slots they had been in and put them in his pocket. They were no more than an inch wide. 

Having seen everything he could see here, Saber looked out over the edge of the broken wall. He watched in amazement as the one eye, which now he could see was also glass, cracked and marred, shoot upon something else. Looking once more on the view, then straight down, he saw with some amazement that there was a moat around it! Like the fortresses in Nenda's old stories! But the front of it had been smashed together, as if a giant hand had hit one side of the cliff below and simply smushed the moat together to make a solid area. But the sides still were open, with sluggish water trickling in through nearly clogged holes in the rock. 

The old fortress had been made centuries ago to be automated, but now, so many hundreds of years after its creators were gone from the planet, and those that looked after the place were gone, the great wonder was finally winding down. 

Saber left this somehow disturbing scene to itself and went to the half-opened door. A sliding door made of metal! He had never seen such a thing. He wandered down empty halls of crumbling metal, and cracked floors, his footfalls echoing in the silent fort. 

He found many doors that had no power, but were in a state of decay severe enough for Saber to be able open them. In some, he found half- rotted bedchambers, clothing that had been partially devoured by moths. He figured that since they were inside, and sealed so well, they had been preserved. 

Well, _kind _of preserved, he amended in his thinking when he tried to sit on the bed and it collapsed. There were several more such bedchambers, some with ancient photos preserved in their frames of glass, sealed from the elements. He looked hard at these, as they were among the few things that did not crumble when he touched them. They were of people almost like his own! But they also seemed to be part animal. They had thick fur unlike the thin covering his own people had, like the skin of a peach. They had wild manes of red, and orange, and yellow, and slitted eyes almost like a reptile! They were clearly warriors, even two that looked like children, and were obviously twins. 

He decided to take one of the photos from the room that had the picture of the strange twins on it, a room that also had two beds and twin chests of drawers. Nothing was in the closets but dirt and bones, bones of small animals, Saber guessed. He hoped. One of the rooms had a sturdy table of a material Saber had never seen. It wasn't glass, but almost. It did not crumble when he touched it, and the metal stool held his weight. There were things that looked like writing sticks, and the ones that held together long enough for him to try proved that they were. But so skinny! There was a bed of course, and a shelf of books that were crumbling to dust. 

Yet another room had some more machine things like in the top of the fortress. This room was on the very bottom of the fort, and the things in here seemed to be preserved perfectly being farthest from the elements at the top. The door had slid open at Saber's approach, startling him badly. Things _worked _in here! Long ago, a red-maned warrior would jokingly have said, "Nothing you make would _dare_ not to work!" And now it was as if the gray warrior's very spirit had kept things functioning. 

Eagerly he went in, seeing more of the photographs, this one with a gray toned animal-person with two older ones, a man and a woman, Saber was sure. But it was the machine he was interested in. It was little, just for one person, and he looked it over. Touching a button, he nearly jumped out of his skin when a spark zapped from the console, and a little blank square like he had seen lit up like a lamp! Wide eyed in amazement, he watched as a little metal drawer with a circle in it slid open, and a voice an actual voice! Said "Insert disk, please." 

Badly startled, Saber only blinked. It was a while of looking around before he decided the very _machine _had talked to him! "A-are you...are you a spirit?" he asked it, wondering now if the little screen might not be an eye. 

The machine said nothing of course, but Saber notice the little hole was the right size for the little circles he had found. Hmm. 

Taking one of them, he put it in, and the drawer retracted with a screech of lightly rusted metal. "Come on, Panthro!" came a high pitched voice. Saber screamed in complete startlement and dove behind the ancient bed as the square lit up with a moving picture! Shaking, he peered out as the voice continued. The twins he had seen from the photograph were moving on the screen! "We can help you with the Thundertank, we're old enough!" 

"Yeah!" came a slightly lower voice. 

Saber cautiously crept from behind the bed. "H-h-hello?" he asked. "Are you real?" But the voices just went on as if they did not hear him. He reached a shaking hand out to touch the little square, and it did nothing but emit a tiny spark of static electricity. It truly was a moving picture, as if someone tiny had crawled in there and was putting on a story-show! 

The people spoke a garbled version of his own language, which amazed him. He was able to understand if he concentrated, but it was not easy as he witnessed this marvel. He watched it for a long time, watching the scene move on to another day, and a battle! An actual battle! Horrifying beasts that were half man, half animal fought these strange warriors, but that was not what startled Saber the most. What made his jaw drop, not for the first time that day, was that he saw someone he had _seen_ before! Or someone that was similar! He saw creatures of pale skin, with horns on their heads, moons on their brows. Now that he looked closely, they were different from the demons he had been terrified by on Gathering Day but he had no doubt they were the same things. And the warriors were _fighting_ them! They must be demons themselves, or at least as powerful! 

Saber watched this for a long time, and by the time he could no longer hold his eyes open, he had gone through three of the little disks he had found in the top of the building. He put his duffel on the floor, happy that he had a real bed to sleep in, one that seemed like it might not fall under his weight, and he fell asleep in the room of the gray warrior. Tomorrow he would see more. 

As Saber slept, something passed overhead. Something that he would have thought a giant bird, but it was not. It was a vehicle. The pilot of this vehicle was running a scan of the place. "Amazing," the man said, looking at the readouts. "Absolutely amazing. I had not thought the little pest would still be alive." 

"I can't believe we finally found him. Fourth Earth's a big place. Even if we did have a starting place. I can't believe he made it here though. Let's go report to Fintii." 

The man nodded, and Chilldon and Icerii sped away from the place, where centuries ago, their ancestors had once fought the knights that lived there, and now were gone from the planet. 

Part 14: Contact 

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	14. Contact

  
14 

Contact 

"He what?" came the voice of amazement. 

Icerii shrugged. "The little human brat made it to the old Cats' Lair," she repeated. 

"And managed not to get fried by it. That thing still works," Chilldon added, and shook his head. "Those people are so completely primitive, I never thought I'd see the day one of them could make it this far. And a child no less!" 

Fintii paced. Or rather her mount, Havok, paced, as most Lunar clan Lunattacks had not the leg strength to walk on their own. "Hmmm." She turned to face her subordinates. "And what of the villagers?" 

Sounder, the hyperaudio Lunattack in the room, spoke up. "They stopped looking for him. I was surprised they went a few hours beyond their southern and even the north borders, and didn't find him, so they think him dead. The kid's brother is convinced he is alive, but everyone else is mourning him." 

Fintii nodded in satisfaction. "Good. I was worried they'd begin to wander from their village. We can not have that. All right. You, Chilldon, you, Sounder, and Infra." She considered for a moment. "And Earthquake. I want you four to take this kid and bring him back here. I want to find out more about what he knows and what he has seen." 

Chilldon grinned. "And if you don't like it, you'll supply the villagers with a body so they can prepare their funeral rituals, eh?" 

"Exactly, Chilldon. Take the larger Icerunner, the four-seater." She chuckled. "One seat for the boy of course; Earthquake needs no vehicle." No one moved. "Well, what are you waiting for?" 

Sounder smiled and stood from where he had been leaning against the wall. "I am ready," he said calmly, a nasty glint in his eye. "And if he fights us?" 

"He won't fight us," Chilldon sneered. "If the adults in his valley think us to be demons, one little runt of a human will be too terrified to fight us." 

"Don't get too overconfident, Chilldon," Fintii warned. 

Chilldon made a scoffing sound but did not argue. It would only earn him an earache if she screeched at him. "Well let's go," he said. "Sounder, get Infra and Earthquake, will you?" 

Sounder nodded, and went to fetch them. 

That morning, Saber had awoken to find himself staring at a blank screen, wondering where he was. And then as his mind woke up, he remembered. With a big grin, he sat back down at the computer console he had taken to thinking of as a magic photograph, fiddled with the buttons until he got the little drawer to pop out, and put another of the little disks inside it. He was absolutely enraptured by this new wonder, and watched eagerly as scenes of people thousands of years gone began to play. 

It was the fighting that he was most interested in, although he enjoyed watching their strange flying carts as well. However he watched most closely the fights with the demons, whom he was beginning to think were not demons at all. They might even be mortal! Mortals with the powers of gods. 

As he watched one battle, that took place in the rocky terrain that was beyond the Northern Boarder, the place the strange animal warriors called Darkside, he saw little balls of metal floating above the fighters, with a glass eye in the middle of them. He thought these might be taking the pictures; they looked like strange versions of the giant cameras some of the tradesmen used to make their photographs. They were leftover technology that had been figured out and simplified by his people. 

But the important thing was, he saw the animal warriors bleed. When they were hit, they bled; they were mortal. But even more importantly, the horned beings also bled! Even as he watched, a blue colored one shrieked in pain and outrage as an edge of one of the child warriors' flying boards hit her in the head. He shuddered as he watched her ice the unfortunate kid, but then cheered as his? her? sibling zapped her with a little pellet of lightning, and thawed his sibling out the same way. 

Saber had watched the little disks for a few hours when he heard it. Even down in the lower level of the place, he heard something outside and realized it was coming from the front. 

The boy ran from the room, even as he ran, looking amazed at everything he passed. He found what must be the giant doors he had seen from outside, and experimentally shoved one of them. It did not open. 

The other budged, but only an inch or so. He was about to get very frustrated when he spied a button on the wall and pushed it. The doors opened with an earsplitting shriek of metal scraping on metal The doors were no longer properly aligned. 

What he saw made his eyes fly open and his jaw drop. A giant metal cart, hovering in the air, with three hostile looking demons! Where'd they come from? He thought they only lived in the rock lands! 

With a cry of fright, he pushed the button again, hoping frantically that it would also close the doors. It did, and once again the fortress was sealed. 

Saber ran back to the room he had slept in that night, and gathered the little disks. He snatched up his duffel, but before he could even sling it on his back, something huge crashed down through the ceiling like a steel ball through balsa wood. The boy cried out in startlement, then screamed when he saw who it was. It was the round, metal demon from the Gathering day! "Oh, you again!" the demon exclaimed, his wide mouth twisted in a savage grin. "Too bad I can't flatten you!" 

Not demons, they're not demons, they're NOT demons! The frightened boy ran this phrase over and over in his mind as he snatched his spear from the bed. "S-s-stay away from me!" he warned in a voice that he had meant to be solid but came out as a frightened stutter. 

Earthquake began laughing hard, as he reached out and easily took the spear from Saber. He snapped the solid stick in half with three fingers, as if it were no more than a soft writing stick. 

Saber said no more, only bolted from the room and ran down the hall. He could hear the others breaking in through the front doors, and heard it when the doors exploded inward. Laughing, Infra, Chilldon, and Sounder burst through, Chilldon with a coil of rope on his belt. Infra scanned through the walls and pointed. "There!' she said. "There goes the little creep! She ran forward... 

...just as Earthquake busted through the door without opening it. They collided. 

"Ohhhh..." Infra groaned as the other two caught up. "Get off of me you great oaf!" she cried irritably when she regained her senses. She saw Chilldon laughing at her, and Sounder grinning his unsettling grin. 

Earthquake shook his head rapidly as he stood up. "Watch where you're going!" he said with a scowl. 

"Why don't you watch before you come busting out of a closed door like some kind of bat out of hell?" she retorted. 

"Knock it off, you two," Chilldon said, shoving them both down the hall. "That little freak's gonna get away!" 

Earthquake snorted. "Where's he gonna go?" But still he bounded down the hall after the small fugitive. "Hey! Where'd he go?" 

Saber had taken in the argument between the strangers who he was now sure were mortal now that he saw them in such a different environment. At Gathering Day, they had been living up their reputation as demons, and in the dim light of Darkside, and the flickering flashes of the torches, they had seemed it. But Saber was seeing them act as they always did. They were powerful yes, but not immortal. 

He was cowering in a room that had been an armory. There were the rotted remains of a bola whip, a termite ridden staff, and some others whose materials had not decayed down here inside the great lair. There were clawed sticks attached by a short metal chain that he had seen the gray warrior wield, daggers, and swords, a mace and chain even. He saw a crossbow like the hunters in his Valley used, and a hammer that looked like an animal's head. All the animals of the place looked similar, and it was one he had never seen before in his life. A dog was as close as he could get. 

"Where did he go, Infra?" Chilldon asked. Sounder was listening carefully, and as Infra scanned, they both grinned, having located him at the same time. Infra pointed as Sounder was already on the way there. "Here!" she said, and tried the door. "Locked. Earthquake, care to do the honors?" 

Saber's eyes widened in terror as they located him quickly, and wondered what kind of powers they had to have been able to. He had been so quiet! However, he did not know that Sounder could hear a heart beating anywhere in the building, and Infra could see through walls. He looked around and grabbed one of the heavy blades. It clanged to the floor as he was not strong enough to wield it. 

Instead, he grabbed a dagger, and trying not to whimper in fear or wet himself again, he crouched next to the door, clutching the dagger as tightly as he could. 

It was just in time. Earthquake came crashing through the door, looking around wildly for the boy, and Chilldon was right behind him Saber swallowed hard and lashed out quickly with the knife, and was shocked, even though he had seen it on the little disks, that he bled! 

Chilldon howled, in surprise and pain, as he fell to his knees clutching his thigh. Saber ran for the door. 

"I think not." Sounder reached out quickly and snagged Saber's oversized belt and yanked him back with a shriek of protest. 

"Let me go!" the boy screamed, scared out of his mind. He turned around to take a swipe at the Lunattack with his fist, but Sounder easily dodged it. Saber was no brawler. Even through the fear, he was half surprised they were solid flesh, and not insubstantial like a spirit. 

Sounder frowned, and took a hold of the boy's arm as he fought, finally bringing it behind him and catching the other one so he had him held with his hands pinned behind him. 

As Infra and Earthquake looked on with some interest, Chilldon got to his feet, and limped over to the struggling pair. Saber stopped fighting, too frightened to move, frozen in fear. Chilldon was holding the dagger Saber had dropped and wearing a look of rage. 

"Hold on, Chilldon, Fintii wants the kid alive," Earthquake warned. 

Not answering, Chilldon seemed about ready to simply ignore this warning and slit the boy's throat anyway, but he turned with a growl of anger and hurled it. It flew between Infra and Earthquake's heads to lodge in the far wall, and then the icy Lunattack spun around and backhanded Saber across the face. 

Saber yelped, and started coughing, the breath knocked from him from the viscous blow. He started crying, trying very much not to, but not able to stop it. He closed his eyes. 

Chilldon grabbed Saber's dark brown hair and forced him to look at him. "You had better hope that Fintii does not decide you need to be disposed of. Because I will make sure it takes a long, long time." He turned to limp away. 

"Wh-why can't you leave me alone?!" Saber cried. "I w-wasn't doing anything wrong!" 

Chilldon narrowed his eyes, turned, and blew a thin burst of ice at Saber's throat. The boy's eyes went wide as he felt an immediate sharp chill, and felt his breath stop. Desperately, he tried to get in a breath, but could not, and only succeeded in making a thin strangled sound. 

As Sounder pinned Saber to the wall with his own body weight, Infra snatched the rope from Chilldon's belt, and had Earthquake snap it into a few manageable pieces. She took one and tied Saber's hands tightly behind him. The boy did not fight much, as he was discovering he could take small breaths through the ice, but it was hard work, he had to force every inhalation into his lungs. 

"You're lucky you're not dead right now," she growled as she finished the knot, and Sounder shoved him in the direction of the front door. "No one attacks a Lunattack and gets away with it." 

Saber did not answer he was too busy trying to breathe and walk at the same time. Infra said something quietly to the injured man, and Chilldon turned, firing a beam of flame like the one from the fortress' eye at Saber, and the ice melted immediately. After gasping and sputtering, he began to cry once more. 

Saber was shoved into a seat of the Icerunner and strapped in tightly with the safety harness. The other Lunattacks piled in, Earthquake simply bounding above the trees as they began to lift off. Saber shrank away from them as much as he could and silently wished he had never left home. 

Chilldon, an ice Lunatatck that Saber meets   
Chilldon 

Part 15: Darkside 

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	15. Darkside

  
**15**

Darkside 

Although by a vehicle that could fly faster than the fastest horse could gallop, or the fastest bird fly, it was not a long flight; for Saber it was the longest ride he had ever taken. But despite that, and although most the time, he kept his gaze riveted rigidly on his abductors, he could not help looking over the side to the ground below. This was something no one in his entire village, even the whole valley had ever seen! 

This was what the eagles must see, flying up among the clouds. Had he not been in such trouble, he would not have wanted the ride to end. But as it was, it lasted far too long. 

He was watching the terrain actually change before his eyes during the long flight, when finally he saw the forbidden territory, a land of demons, or so he had thought before. It was dark, oppressive, foreboding - but no realm of demons. Of that he was now sure. If he needed proof all he had to do was look at the blue skinned one that had struck him, to see the blood, and the expression of both pain and rage on his face. Demons did not bleed, and they did not feel pain. 

But he had other things to think about now, as they began to descend. Although he had calmed down somewhat, even with the unpleasant smiles on the others' faces, now he began to shake again. His face hurt, and was swollen a little, his lip bleeding, and his arms ached from being bound behind him for the long flight, but now he was beginning to rethink his wish for the ride to end. 

"Come on, brat," Infra said, jumping form the vehicle and unfastening Saber's crash restraints. The boy immediately used his feet to push himself back, but the green-haired one that had caught him in the first place grabbed him once more. 

"Oh no you don't," he said, with an eerie calm, his iron grip around Saber's arm. He shoved him back towards the edge, and Infra caught him. 

Chilldon shoved them both aside as Earthquake bounded ahead. The icy Lunattack limped forward and grabbed Saber's hair. "You've got a meeting with Fintii, little wretch," he growled, as Saber made a frightened outcry and cringed away a little bit. Chilldon shook him. "And you'll be lucky if she kills you right away!" 

Saber was trying not to cry again, but it was not easy. Had he traveled for a month and a half only to be brought right back to his northern borders and killed here? Killed by the mortal but frightening beings that had captured him? 

Once inside the dim, oppressive fortress, the young boy was taken to the control room, where Fintii had been monitoring their arrival. Again, even as scared as he was, Saber could only stare at the consoles with their flashing lights and levers and screens. A big one, like the little one in the bedroom of the animal fortress! 

But then two others caught his eye; there were more than two there, but it was two that grabbed his attention first. One looked like a trollkin from the children's stories, only she had bright blue hair with a whitish streak through it. He blinked for a moment. She was not intimidating or frightening. Her steed, on the other hand, was. 

Havoc stepped forward, as Chilldon none too gently made sure Saber did not go anywhere, and grasped the boy's arms. He swallowed hard, then looked up, as the trollkin addressed him in a high, very annoying voice. 

"So, you're the gutty whelp that left the Valley, eh?" She laughed. "I am amazed you got as far as you did. What's your name, brat?" 

Saber could not speak at the moment, both too terrified to, and too in awe of his surroundings. There were three others besides the ones that had captured him. There was another blue skinned one, a female, that looked on in cold amusement. There was another with the unsettling red eyes, a male. At least Saber_ thought_ he was a male. The last scared him the most He was a tall one, purplish skin and gray hair, but his eyes were cruel and savage. They were the eyes of someone who wasn't sane. Saber gulped. 

He was shaken out of his observances when the beast the trollkin rode squeezed his arms hard enough to hurt, and then lifted him in the air as if he weighed no more than an infant. His eyes widened, and all his attention was again on the little one. "I asked you a question, wretch!" the troll screeched. She knew his name, but wanted to know if he would tell her. She was testing him. 

"S-s-saber," the boy stammered, and was roughly set back down. The beast did not let go of him, however. 

"That's better!" She whapped him on the head with her riding crop. "The next time I ask you question, you will answer it immediately!" 

"Oww..." 

"Now, how did you get to the old Cats' Lair?" 

"Th-the what?" he asked, looking around again. He did like being watched by all the frightening, powerful beings. It made him more nervous than he was, and he was very unnerved to begin with. 

"The Cat's Lair!" came the impatient reply. "I can't believe one of you stupid, primitive humans ever left your village. That big cat fortress my Lunattacks found you in!" 

Is that what it was called? And Lunattacks? Were those what these beings were? He had not heard it in any of the little disk things. Well how did she think he had gotten there? "I-I walked!" 

Fintii growled a command to her beast in a language that was clipped and harsh, and he responded by shaking the boy violently. "Don't be a smart alec!" she demanded. "Or I'll just turn you over to Psychren!" She indicated the tall, lanky Lunattack that Saber had been eyeing uneasily. He grinned an unpleasant grin and cracked his knuckles. 

Saber burst into tears. He had not meant to be pert! "I-I wasn't! I _did_ walk there! I w-went beyond the Western Boarder and walked!" 

"No one helped you?" Infra demanded. 

Saber shook his head. "O-only a couple, the Robear Berbils, and the U-unicorn keepers..." Why were they asking him these things? 

"The Berbils!" the female with the blue skin laughed. "I didn't know they still existed." 

Fintii looked back down to Saber. "See the problem is, you humans have been confined to the valley for hundreds of years. And if I let you get back to your people, they might just realize that there is a bigger world out there." She narrowed her eyes. "And you just might tell them of our weaknesses. They think us to be demons." Havoc shook him again. "And it needs to_ stay _that way!" 

Saber was losing it. He had not liked that statement at all, he wanted to go home! "B-b-but, I-I wouldn't tell them!" he protested. 

"Yeah right," Chilldon sneered. He was sitting down with a medical kit, tending the wound Saber had dealt him. "Just let Psycho have him, Fintii. He is useless to us, and the little bastard deserves no better." 

"It takes days for his victims to die," Earthquake added, with a malicious grin at the boy. Saber bit his lip, trying not to start sobbing. Gathering Day had been nothing compared to this. Nothing at all. 

"No," Fintii said. "Put him in the dungeon, keep him tied up, but make sure the circulation is not cut off. I want him able to function. As much as I'd like to off him, I have other orders." 

"But why? Infra said. "He's just a worthless brat." 

Fintii turned to her. "Quiet! I have my reasons!" She told Havoc to turn the boy over to Infra, who caught him with her muscular arms. "Lock him up, chain his ankle to the wall." 

Infra shrugged but said, "Okay..." She figured the little Lunattack did not want to discuss this in front of the prisoner. She nodded at these instructions, and dragged Saber from the room. 

He had started to fight again, this time out of fear. "N-no, let me go! I won't tell anyone, I j-just want to go home!" he cried. 

"Shut up, kid," Infra said. "Forget home, you'll never see it again." She did leave him bound, and chained his ankle to the wall so that he could not move more than a couple of feet from it. When he tried to kick her, she simply jerked the chain to leave him sprawled on the floor. "Enjoy your stay," she said, as she closed the heavy door, leaving the boy in near darkness. 

Saber lay in the corner of the filthy little cell and curled up miserably, tears streaming from his eyes. He had thought he wanted to go home before? He wanted that now more than anything. 

"So why are we keeping him here?" Infra asked once she returned. 

Fintii looked at her. Most the other had dispersed to go about their duties, but Chilldon and Sounder remained. "We are going to test him. Keep him here about five days or so, maybe a week. These humans have evolved into hardier beings. Don't feed him, give him only enough water to keep him alive. Then you and Chilldon are going to release him somewhere miles away from here. I don't care where, preferably in hostile territory. Somewhere it would take him months to travel back from. And we will keep an eye on him to see if he survives." 

Infra nodded. "Got ya, Fintii. Will do." And she left the room to her quarters. She had an idea she knew who had ordered that to be done, and she for one was not going to argue. 

The next few days were completely miserable for the Erthrin boy. He was kept tied up in the tiny cell, which reeked of the septic tanks below. there was a hold in the ground that lead to them, and that was his toilet. He had had to go to the bathroom, and had managed, as he only wore a loincloth, to kneel over it and go. But he had no way to clean himself, and he felt filthy. 

Most the time he sat curled up in the corner, crying quietly, or thinking of his home, and wishing he had never left. He wished that more times that he could count. And to make matter worse, and only to make him more miserable, Chilldon had come in and tied a blindfold around his eyes, laughing at the boy's cry of alarm. 

After a day or so, his hunger was becoming an annoyance, and as the days stretched on, it became unbearable. He was given water by whomever had been assigned to the task, usually the one that fed the other slaves, and this was usually done by jerking his head back by the hair and shoving a water bottle in his mouth. 

The first time, he had refused it, and had received a knee to the midsection for it. He had not refused again. In fact, it was the only relief his stomach got for the hunger. 

This went on for a little over six days, six days that stretched like an endless blight to the young boy in the pit of a cell. He had not eaten now in almost a week, and had been given water once a day. He had been weakened by the ordeal, and when Sounder came down to fetch him on the sixth day, he was shaking violently, almost not able to walk at first. 

He was taken up to the control room, and the blindfold taken off. Saber had to squint, even in the dim light from the screen. "So," Fintii said. "You are holding up rather well for a child." Saber said nothing, only cried quietly and stared miserably at the ground. He was hungry. 

Fintii laughed. "All right, you're going for a long, long ride, whelp." She motioned to Chilldon, and he and Infra took the boy to the hangar. Once again he was out into the four-seated Icerunner and taken for a ride. He had to keep his eyes tightly closed to the daylight, as he had been several days in blackness, and the sun was physically painful. 

The ride took several long hours, many of which Saber slept. He had gotten little rest at Skytomb, and now in the fresh air, and with the gentle rock of the Icerunner, his body could stay awake no longer. The Lunattacks did not care; it kept him quiet. 

After a long journey, Infra brought the Icerunner to a hover, about three feet from the dirt of a desert. Chilldon grabbed the sleeping boy and shoved him rudely off the Icerunner. The boy woke with a cry of pained startlement as he hit. 

"Good luck," Infra laughed, as she rose in the air. The kid was within walking distance of a water supply barely, but whether he made it there would be another story. "You'll need it!" With a roar of engines, the two Lunattacks left Saber lying on the desert ground, tied up and helpless. 

Part 16: The Desert 

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	16. The Desert

  
16 

The Desert 

Saber had lain on the hot sand for only a few moments, and already it was beginning to burn his skin. He tried getting up, but he had never been unable to use his arms before, and only ended up flopping around a bit. 

The boy was trying hard to stem the tears, but it was harder than getting up. He had been scared many times in his travels, but never this scared. 

Using his legs, the boy was finally able to sit up, sitting back on the leather of his loincloth to get away from the hot sand. He closed his eyes tightly to the morning sun as he thought as hard as he could. He forced himself to calm down, and think. It took a long time to calm his frightened, confused mind. His direction-sense told him that the desert extended for many miles in most directions, but sensed a difference to the southeast. 

But his hands... Looking around, the boy found many things that would work. One in particular, a strange looking plant with sharp spines on it. Shakily, he crawled to it and sat with his back to the plant, and moved to try to sever his bonds, but yelped as he felt a sharp pain back there! Scuttling clumsily away, he saw the plant move, and as he squinted, he saw two tiny eyes glaring at him. It was an animal! it had struck him with itself! 

Now knowing to stay away form those "plants", he looked around again, trying not to stagger in the heat. He found a sharp stone that did the trick. Saber bit his lip as the stiff muscles and joints of his arm sent loud reminders to his brain that one should not keep them in the same position so long. The skin of his wrists was red, bleeding a little, raw. The fur had been worn off, and he wondered if it would grow back. 

He lightly grasped them, his eyes closed again. He had been so long in blackness, that the bright sunlight was actually painful to the point where he would cry out if he opened his eyes too long. Squinting them open every few seconds to look at the ground he was walking on, Saber began to walk. 

When the morning sun was a late afternoon sun, Saber collapsed to the ground. He had fallen more than once as he walked those miserable, weary hours, his hunger and thirst constant motivators for him to keep going, but this time, he was not sure if he could get up again. It was hotter than before, and he was covered in sweat, his breath coming in rapid pants. He had lost his headband, and his hair fell into his eyes every few seconds, as it was longer than it had been a month ago. 

Now it hung to touch the ground as he got to his hands and knees, sitting back on his calves. He started crying as he tried to get up, and could not, and could feel the ground burning his skin. His first thought was to give up, but thinking of his home and his family banished that thought right away. 

The terrain had been changing slowly as he walked. The ground was still rocky and hard, but scruffy plants were showing up here and there, as well as tall, dry trees with tiny, tiny leaves. Saber squinted up to crawl slowly over to the shade beneath a little stand of three of those trees, where the air was not much cooler, but the ground no longer burned his skin. Exhausted, Saber lay down east of the tree, where he knew the shade would stay until the sun set. he could travel no more without rest; he would travel at night. At night, the sun would not force him to walk with his eyes closed, and it would not beat relentlessly on his uncovered body and head. It was making him dizzy. 

He had not meant to fall asleep. But when he awoke to find a slight breeze cooling the sweat on his neck, he was glad he had. His mouth was dry enough to be painful, and the need for water was unbearable but now it was cooler. The air was still arid and hot, but without the sun making everything like an oven, the heat was tolerable. 

Although it hurt every sore muscle in his body, and made his tired brain rebel, Saber stood again. He did not want to move, but if he stayed here, he'd die, and he knew that. It scared him very much. He did not want to die like this. 

And so he walked. 

------ 

Was it? It was!!! Wait...no...no, it was only his strained mind playing a cruel trick on him again. He had been hearing water on and off for almost two hours now, and he never reached it. It would have to be a huge body of water for him to hear it this far off. Now that he thought about it, it sounded like the constant noise that could always be heard past the cliff borders of his town. His mind must just be thinking of all the times he had sat there and listened to the mysterious, pleasing sound. 

Maybe I'm in the other _side_ of the cliff boarders! his mind thought at one point. No one knew what was beyond them. But then he looked ahead into the darkness that was slowly fading again into morning, and saw no cliffs. So much for that hope. But still it was there again when the wind blew. And it was getting somewhat cooler. Maybe. 

An hour later, as dawn had officially appeared with the peeking of the sun over the horizon, he was sure. He heard it now, even when the wind was still, and now he could smell it too! He could smell the fresher air, like the stream banks of his valley's waterways, like the air before a rain! Although the boy was really in no condition to run, he did. He ran eagerly towards the sound, that grew ever louder. As he'd been given water in the morning, and released the next morning, now he had been without for two days. He wanted to get there more than he had ever wanted anything in his life. 

But as he rounded a large outcropping, falling and scraping his knees further, he stopped and stared. Even in his desperation, he stared. 

Before him, the view having before been blocked by the tall rocks, stretched and endless expanse of water. A plain of water, like the farmers' fields, or like the sky itself! It was blue, like the sky, and he could see it in all directions, it being so big he could not see the end of it, even as he squinted. 

After the initial shock, Saber's thirst returned full force, and he stumbled onto the sand, that had become more and more soft. It felt good to his blistered feet, after two days of walking on rough, abrasive desert ground. He plunged into the surf and drank. 

Even as he drank, he noticed the stinging on his scraped and bloodied feet first. Water shouldn't sting them that much! And then he registered that what he was drinking was not right! He recoiled, kneeling straight up in the shallow water of the sea, and stared once more, dizzied. Salt! There was salt in this water! There wasn't supposed to be salt in normal water, _people _put salt in water! Had the demon-beings put it there? No, even they could not possibly salt this much water, could they? 

He did know that he could not drink this water. It would not quench his thirst, and it would make it worse. He _could_ wet his parched tongue and mouth with it though, and he did. Even just kneeling in the surf and letting the spray cool his overheated body revived him a bit. There were clouds in the sky, making the light bearable as well, and for a moment, he only knelt there. This must be the great sea! Nenda often told him of great seas and oceans, expanses of water that went for miles and miles. It was one of the things he had hoped to find when he left that early summer day. 

Now it was midsummer; two months into his journey and he was there. What had old Nenda said about the seas? His eyes widened, and he shut them quickly. He remembered! You could find drinkable water from seas. Now he remembered Nenda telling him, seas and oceans had salt in them...although he did not know how. But streams ran_ into _seas! he just had to go along the waterline until he found one! 

It was several hours before he found it. The brief energy boost of the cool water had worn off, and now he was damp and waterlogged, but soon he heard the water in both ears now, not just the one turned to the great sea. Again he ran, and laughed deliriously when he saw it. It was a large stream, running down from what looked like a rocky region almost too far away to see, but the important thing was it should have no salt! He fell to his knees once more, and the water of the two-foot deep stream did not burn his injuries. Dipping his head into the water, Saber drank. 

The boy drank greedily, and drank much in a short time. He only stopped when he felt a churning in his stomach, and he vomited on the mix of beach sand and grass that banked the stream, vomited water. But then he dipped his head in and drank again. This time he kept it down. 

After he had taken his fill, Saber climbed up onto the grass/sand and lay down. Just lay. The water had quelled his hunger for now, and as he rested for a good hour, he could feel a spurt of energy; enough to look around a bit. Stumbling a little, Saber explored the beach, wondering at the things upon it, which a land dweller would have no idea about: sand dollars, shells, seaweed, driftwood... His foot did find out that the shells were sharp, however. 

After this small exploration, he returned to the stream and looked around there. He saw a few bushes and trees he recognized, and almost fell down in gratitude as he saw a tree that bore fruit, and fruit he knew to be safe! 

With the last of his strength, he climbed the great tree and greedily grabbed some of the fruit, eating it as fast as he had drunk before. He threw up once more, but after that, he kept it down. 

After eating all he could without getting very sick, he shakily climbed down. He lay in the grass underneath, ignoring the beach sand that was slowly being choked out here by the vegetation, and curled up. As the sun began to set once more, Saber closed his eyes and was able to sleep without pain, hunger, or thirst for the first time in a long, long week. 

Part 17: Kasana-Kai 

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	17. Kasana Kai

  
17 

Kasana-Kai 

The ancient being smiled unpleasantly. "You have done well," he said, and then seeing and smug smirk of his tall-bodied guest, he added, "For once." 

Psychren scowled, but for once said nothing. He would have pounded anyone else who said such a thing to him, but he knew this was the one person who could smear him across the wall. One did not attempt a pounding on someone like that. "Right," he grumbled. He dwarfed the denizen of the deep black pyramid, but in this case, he knew that size meant nothing. 

"You are dismissed, Lunattack." 

Grumbling things that he would not dare let the ancient priest hear, Psychren left. He decided he would capture someone from the villages and take out his anger on them. He could use a few days of frustration release. 

"Insolent fool," he mumbled, as the Lunattack left. Although he had to admit, that none other on the planet would be able to do as he wanted. None were as intelligent, strong, or advanced as they. Mumm-Ra thought back on the many underlings he had worked with: Phumekten, and the powerful female wizard Nefrathi, Adolph Hitler, the human dictator, and Charles Manson from the first Earth; the Bolkin hoodlum team Hetchin and Grefkee, and the human Visin from Second Earth; the Mutants and these Lunattacks' ancestors of Third Earth. 

Now none were left but the Lunattacks. The Mutants, who had killed their circus captor, ripping him in four parts with their four winds device once they got him back to Third Earth, were now gone. Mumm-Ra laughed as he remembered watching them that day. The overweight fool had begged for his life in the long hour before they actually began releasing the device. Then he had screamed until he went into shock. And it was roast crow that night for dinner. 

Now he had the Lunattacks. Although he had to admit, some were as clumsy as any he had ever known, the most of them were far more competent then their pioneer ancestors here on the earth. Moreover, they were lords of the planet. Any villages of the entire lands defied them they paid dearly for it. It was a good deal all around. 

Of course, they had had little resistance. In this generation, there had been none that you could count. There had been a few pitiful resistances organized against him, but they were easily cut down. The last _worthy_ one had been Kasana-Kai, from the vast savannas of the south. She had been a dark skinned woman that lived in the area of what had once been called the Dark Continent in days past. Her long black hair, woven into dozens of little braids, reached to her waist, and she dressed in simple browns and greens, as many humans did. Her people still called themselves humans, although they had undergone the same changes of evolution that Saber's folk had. Their skin was brown, not beige, their eyes dark and deep. She had been a worthy adversary. 

Kasana-Kai rallied hundreds of her people across her whole land to fight with her. They gathered riding beasts, weapons, carts, even primitive explosives, and they had traveled to the ancient priest's domain to fight him, and eradicate his evil from the planet. It was the greatest uprising in a few hundred years. Mumm-Ra had gathered his own soldiers together then, the Lunattacks among them, and demons and monsters that had been summoned by his masters. He had even brought forth creatures from the past, that still lived. Driller, Demon of the Sands, and his great mechanical plagues, had been present to fight for him. 

Even with these awesome beasts, and with the power of magic on his side, it had been a long, hard battle. While Kasana's army fought his summoned warriors, the courageous woman had confronted him herself. 

He still remembered, now after all these years, her defiant tone, her proud expression. He recognized it from a thousand battlefields before: will. It was will, and a strong one. It was the face of a person that had been repressed too long, a person with pride for her people, a person fighting for freedom. 

He remembered what she had said to him before leaping, sword drawn, ready for blood, although she could not possibly know he had none to spill. She had said, "You have reigned with tyranny for too long, Evil One! And on this day, it will end, with your blood coloring the sand!" 

He head leapt back, in his hand the snakehead hilt of the double-bladed Sword of Plundaar already forming in his hand. He hovered several feet up glaring down at the blades grew from the golden hilt. 

Kasana, as well as many of her fighters, had stared. They had never seen him before, only his henchmen. They had only_ felt _his wrath and rule. Now they faced him, never before meeting one that could fly like that. 

Kasana's face showed minimal fear on that day. She looked mostly indignant and surprised. Then she scowled. "Face me like a warrior!" she snarled. "Not like a butterfly!" 

Mumm-Ra's hateful, blazing eyes widened at this insult, then narrowed. He landed on the ground, approaching the tall, strong woman. "You wish to fight me," he rumbled. "I admire your courage. And you are right. It will end today." He glanced once at the battle raging all around him. A few Lunattacks were down, and fifty of the humans had attacked one of the great mechanical insects and downed it. But the humans were taking more wounded than Mumm-Ra's fighters were. 

The demon priest turned back to his lone opponent. "But it will not end with my death!" This time it was his turn to lunge. 

The two warriors battled. They fought with solely swordplay, as this was a battle of honor, a test of skill, and strength. 

Hour after hour, they fought. Both were tiring, even as the battle around them began to die down. Kasana saw that her people had been defeated, beaten, but she herself did not back down. She would destroy the foul beast that spread his terror over the planet, or she would die here on this battlefield. 

Mumm-Ra, too, was weakening. Time after time, he underestimated the various mortal species of the world, and each time he witnessed their strength and determination, he was impressed. They were inferior being to be beaten down, repressed, but that did not mean the tyrant could not admire their strength, or respect their skill. 

And this strong, beautiful woman had plenty of skill. 

But still, it was Mumm-Ra who dealt the fatal blow. Kasana-Kai, bleeding from half a dozen blade wounds, had been too slow leaping back from a viscous lunge with the barbed bade of Mumm-Ra's sword, and she gagged as it buried itself in her midsection. Her body convulsed, even as she tried to jerk back, and she fell to her knees. She was already dying when she collapsed to the ground. Her last expression, while partly of agony, was mostly of rage. Had she been able, she would have spit in his face before dying. As it was, she could not even speak. As the last of her life seeped onto the ground, she died quietly, like a warrior, still clutching her sword. 

And now, as he thoguht of her, Mumm-Ra gazed into his cauldron at the boy sleeping by the stream. Could he be the next? Surely not, he was only a child. In all the uprisings against him throughout his long, long rule, none but one had been a child leading it, and even he had been almost a man, with an army of followers 300 strong. How could this one boy be a threat? 

Still, he had thought that before. And so he vowed to keep an eye on the situation. But for now, he had been from his sarcophagus too long, and needed rest. Thinking again of the human woman and her nearly successful attempt to overthrow him, he rested once more. 

Part 18: A Time to Heal 

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	18. A Time to Heal

  
18 

A Time to Heal 

In Saber's village, his parents were certain that he was dead. They had searched the entire valley, every known hiding place, every nook and cranny, all the places he liked to wander. They had found no trace of him. 

Gathering day had come once more, and of course the Lunattacks that were there masquerading quite convincingly as demons had not been able to resist mentioning the young adventurer. "Heard your brat left the valley, Erthrin," Chilldon had sneered. Fegreth, Saber's father, had looked up in surprise. 

Infra snickered. "We came across the pathetic little wretch. He was fun to play with...while he lasted." 

The others had laughed at this while the warriors that brought the monthly offerings had all looked shocked. Fegreth had only stared for a moment, and then with the rage of a father whose child has been harmed, he did the unthinkable. He attacked one of the demons of the rocklands with his blade. 

Now had he made contact with Infra, he might have learned what his son had: that they were not immortal. But Earthquake, quick on the draw with his gravity carbine, had struck him, lifting him in the air, and making him miss. "You dare attack?!" the irate Lunattack roared. He flung Fegreth into one of the cave walls and he dropped his sword, gasping to get his breath back from the blow. 

"Y-you killed my son!" he cried when he had managed to breathe again. "He was only an innocent child!" 

"Silence!" Earthquake roared, and flung him again against the wall. 

And he did so again, and again... 

The others were laughing at this improvised ping-pong game, and jeered at him when the rounded Lunattack finally released Fegreth and dropped him to the ground, unconscious. Chilldon woke him with a breath of icy air, and took him by the hair. "We won't kill you tonight, mortal," he hissed. "Consider it a favor. You can live to mourn your son." 

Then they had left, as the last of the valuables had been loaded into Skytomb. 

The other warriors had helped the injured man back onto the cart and back home, where he was tended by the healer and sent home to recuperate. He would not be going to a Gathering, or anything else for a long time. 

He had, of course, told his family, and he and his wife had cried. Drii cried too...but still he had doubts. He knew his brother, better even than his parents, he would not count him out yet. Besides, demons lied; everyone knew that. 

As it was, Chilldon had almost been right. Even Saber did not know how close he had come to dying those hellish few days, as he lay sleeping in the grass by the stream. He had slept for a very long time as his body recovered. When he awoke, he was ravenous, his malnourished body demanding food and this time he could oblige. He had lost weight already, and his loincloth would not stay on. He finally gave up on it. Who was there to see him anyway? 

Saber took several days recovering from the ordeal. He stayed mostly by the little stream that had saved his life, and ate mostly fruit, berries, the few plants he knew for sure to be safe. And he did slowly recover. 

He had started to explore the beach, marveling at the strange things on it: the seaweed, and the shells, even the sand itself. He had never felt anything like it before, as if millions of tiny, tiny rocks had been dumped here by a miniature race. He had found some deadwood, broke off a piece strong enough to work, and used a sharp shell that his foot had discovered to sharpen it into a new spear. He had been able to catch some fish to cook using it. 

Mostly he sat on a rock that was almost seat-shaped, and looked out on the waves. This never ceased to amaze him, and he was hardly in a condition to have appreciated it when he staggered from behind the rocks to discover the salty sea. He had never seen so much strange water in his life. And the smells! Fresh smells, like the cleanest air in the world. Almost like the smells before a rain, but with its own smell, from the salt in the water, and the seaweed, and the creatures in the sea. 

He had heard stories of great ships that traveled on these seas, like the little boats he made of paper and sealed with wax to play on the streams of his valley. Nenda had told him of pirates, villains of these seas that plundered and stole from the seaside villages. It sounded frightening. and he vaguely hoped there were none here, but it also sounded exciting. He wondered what is was like, living on the water like that. 

Finally, it was time to move on. He had been there a long time, and was feeling the urge to continue his long journey. He was lost though, this he knew. He knew which way was south, and new the general direction of his home, but he also knew that he was many, many miles away from it. 

As he became stronger, regaining his health, he had found the trees whose bark he had been using for his journal, and fashioned a writing stick. He had much to write about and had filled many pages. He had also been able to figure out how many days he had missed in his writing, and so knew when it was. It was still summer, middle summer, but he had a feeling that it would not be summer any longer by the time he got home. In addition, he had a stop to make. He had promised his little brother he would bring his hintrin blanket back to him, and he intended to. All of his belongings were back at the massive animal-fortress where the strange warriors had once lived. 

His scant clothing again fitting him well, Saber gathered his journal pages, his spear, and his writing stick and set off once more. 

Weeks passed, and they were lonely, difficult weeks for the young boy. As he moved farther and farther along the beach, the ground became rockier, and the vegetation became more sparse. He came across streams here and there, and was able to catch enough to eat, but as he went along, there was less wood to use as a fire. He had taken to eating the fish raw. He knew that his people could eat most fish as such, although it was not too pleasant. He always hated the taste of raw fish 

Another thing that bothered him was that he was going the wrong way. This vast water-land had crossed his path so to speak, and that was where he had to go to get home. He did not know what an ocean was, as the word he had always heard was "sea", but this was what had once been called the Pacific. Thanks to thousands of years of existence, and shifting of faults, and deepening of ocean caverns and the like, there was no land on the planet that could not be accessed by foot. Some were five foot deep waterways; some were shallow water trickles, and some ands had even crashes together, creating new mountain ranges. But still, to reach these passages, one had to travel a long way. Saber had quite a journey ahead of him to get home. 

Part 19: The Nai 

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	19. The Nai

  
19 

The Nai 

Saber traveled for what seemed an endless amount of time, months. It _was_ months, actually, almost two and a half, before he was able to go in the right direction again. He had gotten used to the great marvel of the sea as he became familiar with it. After a couple of weeks, he was even able to tell that at certain times, the water receded, and could see the line of salt and debris from the waters that marked the high point of it. 

The boy's journal entries for many of these days were not hopeful. He was homesick, and quite tired of his journey. He had never thought that he would be away so long, thinking maybe a month or two, but then again he had not expected to be abducted by a group of rowdy Lunattacks, either. He had cried many nights as he lay in sand or grass, and spent more than one night without sleep, thinking of home. Still he moved on, knowing that if he did not, he never _would_ get back home again. 

However, his spirits rose when he saw that the shoreline he was following began to twist to the east, the direction he had to go. He had not been wanting of water, or food, although a little tired of the few fruits and greens he could find, and fish, but at least there was wood again, and he did not have to eat it raw. 

He had a bundle of bark-papers with him, and his spear, nothing else. His waterskin had been left behind, and he did not know how to make one. And so he kept close to the sealine even when he did not have to, so he could be near the rivers and streams that fed it. He had had to cross one such river, and had been lucky that it was calm. But summer was ending, and the water had been cold; it had not been a pleasant swim. 

This leg of Saber's journey had been uneventful, although the nights were cooler, and chilly sometimes. It had rained a few days here and there, and this time it was not nice and warm as the last had been. Those had been miserable traveling days for him, but he discovered that some of the larger leaves could be tied together with tiny plant-vines to make a shelter of sorts. When the rain stopped, he took this shelter down and tore it enough to be used as a cloak for when it was cold. It kept the wind out at any rate. 

It was along around the end of the first moon-time of autumn when the shoreline began to twist to the east. Saber had been happy to see that, as he did not have to leave his water supply, and could still go the right way. 

He was again leaving the trees and the like behind, but he was not worried about that just yet. He had seen something! As he got closer, he could see that it was man-made, wooden, at the water's edge. It extended from the shore out into the water a good many feet, and when he walked out onto it and looked down, he could see that there were wooden supports underneath. He wondered what it was for. The water was deep here, and could not really be waded in very well. Maybe it had something to do with that? 

Wondering about this, Saber moved on. Maybe there were people here! He had been almost three months without seeing anyone, and it was getting into the second autumn moon-time. The weather was warm mostly in the daytime, but getting colder at night. Maybe he could find some shelter here for a bit if nothing else. 

As he walked, Saber could see that he was definitely headed for a village, right near the shoreline. There were wooden buildings here and he could see smoke that could have been from a chimney. Saber quickened his pace, his makeshift leaf-cloak flying out behind him in the chilly wind. 

As he neared the closest building, a voice stopped him cold. "A human!" it exclaimed, in a voice so accented Saber almost did not realize he spoke the same language he did. "I ain't seen a human in a couple o' decades!" 

Saber spun around, and his eyes widened. He let out a startled yell and stumbled back a few feet. "What—what are you?!" He had not meant to sound as shocked, or as rude for that matter, but the...person? he saw before him had purple skin! And his hair was so curly that it kinked up tight against his head; a strange looking being to say the least. 

The man chuckled. At least Saber thought he was a man since his voice was deep. "I'm of the Nai, human. The name's Leyati. What about y'? How'd y' come to be out so far here?" 

Well, the man seemed all right...Saber stepped forward tentatively. "My-my name's Saber...I-I'm not human, I'm Erthrin." But then he realized that apparently they were the same thing. He wondered when they had begun calling themselves Erthrins. "I...I got caught by some...people and left in the desert that's west of here. I'm trying to get home." 

The man chuckled. "'Some people', huh? Well why don't y' come on into town? That's no way to be dressed at this time o' year." 

Saber was having difficulty understanding what the man said., but if he concentrated, he was able to grasp his words. "Well, I had other clothes, but they got left behind when I got caught. Left my waterskin too, and a blanket I had and my journal." He showed the man the bark pages. "I had to make another one." 

Leyati raised a brow. "That's a lot of bark. The desert, huh?" he said as they made their way towards the village. He chuckled at the way Saber kept staring at him in fascination. "That's a mighty long way from here. You walked all this way?" 

Saber nodded. "I've been walking for almost three months since then, and almost two before that..." That was almost half a year! He had not realized how long he had been away from home. No wonder he was homesick! 

"That _is_ a long time." The strange Nai's face showed little emotion but a sort of world-wise amusement, and, at least Saber thought so, mild amazement. "So who was it that caught you, boy?" 

"Well...my people thought they were demons. They have powers _like_ demons! And we have to give them a share of our crops and metals each moon-time...but they're not demons, I found out! They're Lunattacks, they can bleed, and I think they can die, but they aren't demons. They...I-I was in this big animal fortress when they caught me, and I don't even know why, but they kept me in their arrest-house for almost a week then left me in a desert. I've never even _seen_ a desert before!" 

"Lunattacks..." The man seemed disturbed by this, but if he was, he shook it quickly away. "Y' survived though." 

Saber nodded. "Yeah...I...I was scared though. I thought I was gonna die. I-I think I almost did." 

"Y' look like a tough kid." He took one of Saber's arms in his hand, and poked his upper arms. "Pretty good muscle for a kid your age, I'd say." 

The boy blinked in surprise and looked down at his arms, now broken into gooseflesh in the chill. Over the sometimes difficult months, fishing, hunting, and living on his own all this time, had strengthened him. Now that he thought about it, another change too gradual for him to see, he was able to walk miles without being winded or tired. "Hey...you're right! They always said I couldn't be strong enough to do things...but they're wrong!" 

The Nai laughed hard at this and clapped a companionable hand on the child's shoulder. "One thing y' never do is listen to the so-called experts. They'll steer y' wrong every time." 

Saber thought about this and grinned. "Yeah...you're right!" He decided that he liked this man,. He was his kind of person. Why couldn't more people back at the valley be like that? Old Nenda was. 

In the town, Saber saw building that almost could have been from his own village, except they were a darker wood, and usually smelled of fish or salt. That was not surprising, as the main food here seemed to be fish. 

Leyati showed the boy around, and told him that people survived here mostly by fishing. There were other seaside villages, and some in the woods to the east and north that they traded with, as well as using the fish and shellfish for their own people to eat. When Saber had asked what a shellfish was, the Nai had grinned. "Tell you what. Y' look pretty hungry. I'll buy y' a meal, and we can talk about a few things. You're in need of supplies, too." 

"Well, okay." Saber reluctantly took the old man's offer. 

Leyati led the human boy inside a building that sold food, but not quite like he knew it in his valley. There were sometimes benches in a food store where you could sit and eat what you bought, but here, there was another Nai that came and asked what he could _get_ them. 

"You mean they bring it out?" the boy asked incredulously? "You don't even have to cook it or prepare it?" 

Leyati laughed. "Y' really _are_ a far way from home, aren't y'?" 

Saber nodded distractedly as he watched the other patrons of the small restaurant. He did not even hear the old man order two servings of something he called crabfish, with berry-water for a drink. "Young fella?" the voice asked. 

Saber snapped his head around, realizing the Nai had been trying to get his attention. "Yeah? Sorry...I daydream a lot and stare off into space..." His face turned a little red. "My teacher always said that I had a problem with that...Teacher! It's fall, I'll be missing school!" 

"Do you like school all that much?" 

"Well no...but I can't miss it. I'm supposed to be a scholar, but I don't want to be., I want to be a warrior, or an explorer." He shivered as he warmed up away from the wind. 

"Well I think y' already _are_ that, kid," the man said with a good-natured chuckle. "If it's not what you want, I don't think you're missing much. But down to business here. Winter's a' comin' on, and you aren't dressed for autumn, much less a bitter winter." 

Saber could not argue with that one little bit. Anything described to be "bitter" did not sound fun. "It doesn't get very cold in my valley. So I don't have clothes for cold weather. I heard it gets cold in the north though." 

Leyati nodded. "Well y're_ in_ the north. Somewhat anyway. I have the things you'll be needing to get on your journey. But you can't get something for nothing, at least not in too many places in this godforsaken Fourth Earth. So I'll tell you what. I could use some help here during the busy season. You stay on a week or two, help me out, and of course I'll give y' room and board, and when the busy part's over...like I said two weeks or so...I'll set y' on with the supplies y' need." He chuckled at the boy's improvised journal. "I'll even give y' some real parchment for y're writin'. How's that sound to y'? 

Saber considered this offer as the Nai that had taken their order reappeared with a thankfully_ hot _meal. Then he grinned. "Okay!" he said. "It's a deal, Leyati!" 

Leyati also grinned, and held his hand out. "It's good to meet y', Saber." After showing the puzzled boy how to shake hands, he began to eat his meal. "What's the matter?" Saber was looking at the plate, perplexed. 

"How do you eat it? It looks like a weapon!" 

Leyati laughed heartily, and even Saber had to grin. The man's laugh was contagious. The Nai showed him how to crack the shell and eat the meat underneath. 

"Oh! Wow, you have to work to eat this one, don't you?" 

"Yep, y' could say that." 

Saber tried a bite, and a moment later was eating hungrily. Leyati chuckled. "I guess you like it then." The kid looked like he had gone without food for a bit, too. He needed some refuge for a while, and some warm clothing. Maybe a little knowledge of the surrounding areas, too. With an amused smile, he went back to his own meal. 

Part 20: A Friendship Formed 

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	20. A Friendship Formed

  
20 

A Friendship Formed 

That night, Saber was put up in the attic of the old Nai's residence. It was near enough to the water that Saber could look out the little attic window and watch the waves. The attic was cluttered, but it was the kind of cluttered that Saber liked. He had wanted to get some rest, rest in a place where he felt safe, but the boy could not resist going through the old ship's logs, although he made little sense of them. He looked through old chests and crates, having before gotten Leyati's permission to do so. He watched, amused, from the pull-down stairs, as the human boy looked eagerly through these old artifacts, before leaving quietly. 

Saber did not even notice the trapdoor stairs close with a soft thump as Leyati went to bed. 

When Saber was through looking, he latched the trapdoor as Leyati had suggested, so he did not step on it during the night and fall. He had been able to find an old hammock, and tied it on the roof's beams where they came down the slanted walls to meet the floor. After writing his journal entry, he fell asleep. 

The next morning, he was awakened by a knock on the floor. "Y' up, young human? It's time for breakfast!" 

Breakfast! Now that he would wake up for! Leaving his journal safely in the attic, and donning his leaf cloak in the chilly morning, he ran downstairs. 

Over a breakfast of toast, eggs, and some strange strips of meat, Saber asked his host again about the Lunattacks. 

"Yep, I know who they are, youngster." 

"Do you know where they came from?" 

Leyati thought a moment, stroking his abnormally smooth chin with his hand. "Well not exactly...we Nai have been on Fourth Earth for a mighty long time, but there's none that actually remembers them coming to this planet." 

"You mean they're from a different planet?" the boy asked in amazement. "How do they do that?!" 

Leyati chuckled. "They've got ships that can fly so high they leave the planet behind. Never seen it myself though. I'd like to now that I think about it." 

"Me too..." Saber bit his lip. "They-they're the ones that caught me. They didn't feed me for a long time then left me in the desert...I don't think they were trying to kill me though." He saw the old man looking at him interestedly, and so continued. Had he seen disbelief in Leyati's face, he would not have gone on. "They could've done that really easily if they wanted to...I think they wanted to see if I _would_ die or not...maybe they thought it was funny or something..." Saber scowled, then shuddered, thinking about his ordeal at their hands. 

Leyati nodded. "I can see them doing it for sport. They're a cruel bunch, they are. They demand payment each second spring tide for leavin' us alone. Otherwise, they'd come in with their flyin' ships and their weapons, and tear this village apart." 

"Yeah!" Saber said. "We have to do that too, but my people think they're demons. But I found out they aren't, because they can bleed! And I found a big animal fortress with moving pictures in it...there's some kind of animal warriors that used to live there, and they fought the...Lunattacks?" 

"Yep, that's what they're called." The man seemed a bit awed. "You've seen the Cats' Lair? There're so many legends here about them. The animal warriors y' speak of are called ThunderCats. We don't even know if their kind still exists." 

"ThunderCats? What are cats? I know what thunder is." 

Leyati smiled at the boy. "Cats are a kind of animal, mostly lookin' like that fortress you saw. That was the shape of a cat. Legend has it they used to live here, but the Cataclysm made the planet inhospitable by their kind." 

"You mean they can't live here anymore?" The man nodded. "That's too bad...I wish I could've met them. I want to be a warrior someday, but my parents say I'm to be a scholar." 

Leyati chuckled. "You gotta do what your heart tells you to, son. You seem to be a long way from home. That Cat's Lair is miles away, you'd have had to travel months to get here." 

Saber scowled. "The Lunattacks? They used a flying cart...ship?" 

Leyati nodded once more. "That would explain it. Well, youngster... Saber, right?" This time is was Saber's turn to nod. "Let's get out to the dock, and let me show y' what I do for a living." He looked the boy over. "Y're gonna need more clothing than that though. It's gettin' cold out. Winter'll be here in a couple of months or so." The old Nai went back into the attic Saber was using as his room, and looked through a couple of old trunks, Saber looking over his shoulder. Finally he found what he was looking for, and found a set of heavy coveralls that he had worn as a boy. They were water-resistant and had a warm, soft lining. "This oughta fit y', youngster," Leyati said. 

Saber grinned and put the unfamiliar clothing on. It was strange to him, and slowed him down at first – he was unaccustomed to the heaviness - but after a moment, he had gotten used to it. "Thanks!" he said. 

"You're welcome. Now let's get on down to the dock." 

Interestedly, Saber followed, wondering what a dock was. 

As the pair made their way through the streets, gray with the coming dawn, Saber discovered that the wooden floor he had seen before out on the water _was_ a dock. He was lead to a far bigger one on the other side of town, where there were a few big boats, and a few of the wooden docks. "Wow!" the boy exclaimed. 

Leyati laughed. "Never seen a port before?" The boy shook his head. "Ever seen a boat before?" 

"Only really little ones the kids use to play in the streams. We only have streams, little ones." 

"Well then I hope you don't get seasick, little one, because we're going on one." 

More excited than he had been those long months of travelling, Saber ran after the man as he went out onto the dock. 

"This is my boat here, Saber. She's called 'Rage and Glory'." The man smiled down at him. "That's what the sea is, y' know." 

"It is?" 

Leyati nodded. "The sea's the most powerful thing on the face of Fourth Earth. She's as beautiful as the sun and the moon, and home to more life than all the land on the planet. We couldn't survive without the sea. That's her glory. But like anything else with such power, she's also deadly. Y' gotta respect her, and be careful, or she'll kill y' without a backward glance. Y' understand that, son?" 

Saber had listened avidly, and had rather liked the descriptions, and the way the Nai seemed to put a gender to everythng And he thought he kind of understood. But not really. "No..." Saber said uncertainly. 

To his surprise, the old Nai did not get exasperated as his father would have; in fact, he laughed good-naturedly. "That's okay, I didn't either at first. But you'll understand as you get used to 'er." 

Saber grinned and shrugged agreeably. 

Leyati brought the boy aboard, and began showing him around. He pointed out the helm, and the living quarters below the galley, showed him where the head was, and anything else he would need to go. "What I do," he said, "Is go around my 'area', checking all my lob traps, and I cast my nets and the like. We'll be out probably overnight and well into the next day on this trip, bringing' it all back for market sale." 

"Lob traps?" Saber asked, not able to take his eye off of his surroundings. 

"Yeah, lobs are like the crab fish y' had last night, only a little different tasting. I'll show y'." 

The old Nai continued his introduction to his ship, explaining how the sails worked, and how his fishing equipment worked, and how he found his traps, and about a dozen other things. He chuckled at the boy's overwhelmed expression. "That's all right, youngster, you'll get the hang of it, This'll be th' only two day trip, as I'm going t' be teachin' y' how things work. But we'll be going out every day for most th' day." 

Saber nodded, trusting that the old man's assurance that he would understand as they went along. 

It was true. As they went out into the brightening day, and he saw other fishermen leaving for their day's work, and he _watched_ Leyati do all the things he had talked about he began to understand more. Leyati told him that since he had been in the village so long, he had earned his pick of areas. His was close, comparatively, and had the best catches. Saber watched in fascination as Leyati traveled through the water, looking for the brightly colored floating wood markers he called buoys. They were attached by a long, long rope to a funny looking cage thing, which he hauled up over the side of the boat. "What are those?!" Saber asked, referring to the creatures in the trap. 

Leyati laughed. "I guess to a land-dweller the creatures of the sea would be kind of strange to y'. These are lobs, my friend. These are what I sell to make my living; these and fish." 

"Well...I know what fish are, our streams have _those_...but I've never seen a lob before. They look mean." 

"They can be, if you don't know how to handle 'em. They're fast as lightning, and can lop off a man's hand if he's not careful." He chuckled as Sabers eyes widened. "That's only if y're not careful and handle 'em wrong." He grabbed one of the creatures by the back, just out of range of the powerful, overly large claws. He tossed it in a big bin on his boat. Saber jumped back. 

"Can they really hurt you that bad?" he asked, alarmed. 

"They can. Hey, it's all right, young fella. I told y' that only so y' respect 'em, and don't go reachin' for one." 

"I won't be!!" Saber said. That was for sure! 

"That's good. If you know how to handle 'em, most any dangerous thing is workable." He tossed another in the bin; only one was left. "Come on over here." He shook his head as Saber refused to come closer to the bin. "They don't jump, and they don't run well. And they don't turn around fast. The only thing that is quick is their claws. Now come on over here, I'm gonna help you get this one out. Come on, I know you got the guts t' do it. Y' wouldn't'a made it this far if y' didn't." 

The slight compliment made Saber approach, but he did not reach in. He would _not_ reach in unless he knew how. 

The man smiled in approval. "Good boy. Now t' pick one of these up..." He reached in quickly and grasped it. By a great show of willpower, Saber did not back away. "Y' have to grab him right behind this third joint here in its armor. See? He's tryin to claw me, but he can't reach. Y' can hold him like this all day if y' want, and he can't get y'." He put the thing back. "Now come over here." He took the boy gently by the arm and brought him around. "Now carefully, reach y're hand in, and grab him. Y' see where I told y' it was?" Saber nodded. "All right then...go on..." 

Saber bit his lip and watched the creature. Then summoning up his courage, he grabbed the creature, right where Leyati had said. It was surprisingly heavy, but he held on, closing his eyes...but when nothing happened, he opened them and beamed widely. "I did it!" The claws were out of reach! 

Leyati laughed. "Good job! Now throw him in that bin over there, and we'll go onto the next." 

Saber and his new friend spent a tiring day checking the traps, and Saber learned how the nets were used as they went along. He learned what to throw back, and how to haul the nets in to keep the fish from falling out. 

That night, Leyati found the boy a stack of parchment for him to use, and a writing stick like the one the boy had seen in the animal fortress...the Cats' Lair. Saber thanked him, and before he went to sleep, wrote a good deal in his journal of his day, and the pride he felt when he was able to get the lob out without hurting himself, and how it felt to be on the sea with the strange rocking. He liked being on a boat very much, he decided. 

Finally, exhausted, Saber put out the kerosene lamp and lay down in the hammock. Minutes later, he was fast asleep. 

Part 21: Rebellion? 

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	21. Rebellion?

  
21 

Rebellion? 

The two weeks went quickly. Almost every day, Saber and his new friend went out on the boat and gathered the old man's catches. He said that these two or so weeks of the year were the busiest for three reasons: it was trading time, which happened four times a year. Two, the fish were the most numerous, as it was their mating season; and three, it was time for the Nai's Gathering Day, which they really didn't have a name for. But it was the same. A group of the elders, as this peaceful town had no warriors and did not need them, took the demanded payment to the edge of town, where the representatives from the six or so towns all met. Some were Nai, and some, Leyati said, were a reptile race. Saber was very much intrigued by this, and wanted to see one, but he did not go. He had had quite enough Lunattacks for a long, long time. 

Saber has asked what happened during trading time, and the Nai told him it was like a giant flea market. Saber had had to ask what that meant, and Leyati explained. The people from the surrounding villages met in Leyati's town, and displayed their wares. The last two days of Saber's agreed time there had been helping him set up his booth. He was told this took place for two weeks, all day for those two weeks. At night, the booths were locked up and people went back home, or to where they were staying, then came back. Food, clothing, tools, fighting equipment, all manner of things were traded there. 

During those long days on the boat, sometimes it was nice out, sometimes rainy and cold, sometimes humid and chilly. But the jumpsuit he had been given kept him warm, and Leyati's attic was comfortable. He talked a lot with Leyati, mostly about the Lunattacks. "Why do you do as they tell you to?" Saber had asked. 

The man raised a brow. "You should know more 'n anyone, youngster. They've got power that could bring this entire village to its knees, with just a few of 'em." 

"But they're not demons, they're mortal! You can hurt them!" 

Leyati sighed. "I know. But there's somewhere along thirty of 'em in that fortress of theirs, and...we just don't have anything to fight 'em with." 

Saber thought for a while as they sailed for their next reap to check. "How many villages, including this   
one, are there around here?" 

"Seven." Leyati was looking at the boy thoughtfully. 

"Hmm...and they all have about how many people?" 

"I'd say anywhere from about three hundred to a thousand. I think Salterville has that many. They're the reptiles." 

"That's plenty! That's enough to fight these guys! Why do we all have to do what they say? They don't need it, they don't do anything to earn it. I mean in my village that's food that could feed people and metals and metals that we could use! I mean, with our four villages, and your seven, and the Berbil Village too, I bet could help-" 

"Berbils? You actually saw them? I thought they were just a legend, the mechanical bears." 

"Bears? I never heard of them. They're little people, but still if we all maybe fought at the same time, and there are the Unicorn Guardians who know magic, and who know how many other villages on Fourth Earth?" 

Leyati never gave him a reply to this, but neither did he argue. He only looked at Saber for a minute, as if reassessing him, then went back to his work. 

After a moment, Saber did too, but he was thinking. In the little disks' moving pictures, he had seen the feline warriors fight many enemies. Mostly the Lunattacks and the beast-people, but he had seen them fight someone else, too. one that did not seem to be a part of a group, rather the leader. He was taller than any of them, and dressed in a kilt and a cape, with a fearsome-looking battle helmet. Was he the lord of the Lunattacks? If so, then even he could be fought; he had seen it. 

The boy stayed a little time after the required two weeks to help Leyati sell his wares. He wanted to see the great sale. It was even bigger than Leyati had made it out to be, as dozens of traders from the seven or so villages came to trade their goods. Saber enjoyed the first two days or so of it, and was surprised on the third day as Leyati approached him with a smile and an item wrapped in rough cloth. "Y' did good these past two weeks, youngster," he said. "And this year I've got a bigger catch than ever. It may not be much, but I wanted to give y' this." 

Saber curiously took the item, and with Leyati's admonition to be careful, unwrapped it. His eyes widened in an expression of pleased surprise. In the cloth was a long, sharp dagger with a hilt of some kind of extremely hard wood and a double blade that branched off into two points before tapering once more at the top. It was a good, strong weapon. "I-is this for me?" he asked. 

Leyati chuckled and handed him the leather sheath that went with it. "Yep, it's for you. I figure y' could use it on your journey. Y' till have a long way to go, young fella." 

After a moment of awe, Saber felt a rush of pride. Would his father have trusted him and his abilities enough to give him something like that? He did not think so. He knew his father loved him more than anything but he just did not understand. A wide grin spread across Saber's face, and without thinking embraced his new friend. 

Leyati seemed surprised, and a little uncomfortable, but he chuckled and returned the embrace, patting the boy heavily on the shoulder. "I'll miss y', kid," he said. "I've traveled a bit in my time, maybe if I can someday, I'll come and see your village in the east." 

Saber beamed. "That's be great! You can meet my mama and papa, and Drii, my little brother." 

"Its a deal, then." The old Nai held out his hand, and remembering, Saber grasped it, and they shook on it. 

The next morning, Saber was on his way. Leyati had said he could stay on a while if he wanted, but did not think the boy would take him up on the offer. He was an adventurer, a traveler, and he knew the boy wouldn't stay in one place too long unless it was his home. Maybe not even then. 

And so, with a wave of thanks and friendship, Saber left the boundaries on the Nai Village. He had an old sturdy duffel that Leyati had had in his attic, and it contained his journal pages, a good amount of fresh parchment, a few of the strange small writing sticks that Leyati had given him, and supplies. The old Nai had given him enough food for a week or so, and an old first aid kit he had found in the attic. Dressed in thick leather boots and the jumpsuit, and with his dagger and a metal waterskin set firmly on his belt, Saber set off once more. 

Leyati watched the boy until he could no longer see him, and waved once more. Then he returned to his home. The trading was not yet over, after all, and there was work to be done. No time to miss the young human. He had never had a son of his own, and at his age did not think he would. It made him happy to know he had passed on his knowledge, and stories to someone who would use them. 

The young traveler passed through two more towns before he was again on his own. One had been a small Nai town, and he had passed it in a day, stopping only once for a small meal. The other had been a town of the reptile creatures he had seen at the trading area in Leyati's village, and had been fascinated by. He had never seen man-lizards before. They were pretty quiet for the most part, and very tall. but somehow they were not intimidating. He stayed the night at a small inn, in exchange for doing some chores around the place. His hosts were friendly enough, and in the morning, as dawn broke over the sea, he started off again, 

The sun rising and setting was something that Saber wished he could see every day on the ocean, and the only thing he;d enjoyed on his journey after the desert. If the sky was clear, and he looked out over the vast waters, he would watch the great fiery ball rise, or set over the blue horizon. In some places the sea curved enough for him to see both, others only the sunsets occurred over the waters. 

He would watch the water turn brilliant orange as the sun dipped, waves reflecting a purer white light, the valleys between the waves a deep red. At one point, the whole sea would look to be aflame, and it was then that Saber thought he could watch it forever. He had never seen such a thing of beauty in his life, as one who lives surrounded by trees never would. 

This would be the last time he would see this sight on his journey, as the ocean once again turned away from where he had to go. But that was all right. He had the strange metal waterskin, lighter than his other one, and it carried a good amount of water. He figured he would run into a river or a stream that he could follow at some point, and he was not worried. 

He did come across a small river that ran the way he needed to travel, and over the days, he began to leave the beach behind. He kept the metal waterskin...a canteen, the old Nai had called it...empty until he needed to fill it. He took the water fresh from the river instead. He had wondered at first how something so light could hold water, but an amused Leyati had shown him that it did, and was stronger than anything made of leather could be. Saber had been amazed. There was so much in this world that fascinated him; he wondered how his people ever could have stayed so long in that one valley that now seemed so little to him. 

And so Saber walked. As he went on, the river narrowed down into a wide stream, and cut across his path. The boy easily crossed it, filling the canteen and drinking a good deal before leaving it completely. The weather was getting colder, and before too long, even the thick jumpsuit could not keep out the cold wind. His hands and face were exposed to the wind as he left the stream and headed once more into woods whose trees were shedding their leaves. Saber's boots crunched brilliant red, gold, and orange leaves underfoot as he steadily headed east, where the Cats' Lair and his belongings were. He had fashioned another headband that kept the hair from his eyes, but did little to warm his head. 

As the weeks passed once again, Saber passed through many small villages. Sometimes he stayed a while, and worked to earn board and supplies for his journey. In one of these towns, he had assisted a blacksmith for a few days, and had enjoyed that. It was always warm in his shop, and watching him bend the very metal into the shapes he wanted was fascinating. In this town, he had gotten some gloves and a warm hat with the coins he received for his work. 

One of the towns was Nai, a couple were the reptile people...and one was even Erthrin! They called themselves human as well, although they looked exactly like Saber's people. They had the lightest fur on their bodies, the slightly feral-looking faces, and as he told them about his own village, and they compared similarities and differences, he discovered they also had the natural filters that could be dropped in the throat in the nasal passages. Saber hated the way that felt and rarely used them, but he had the ability. 

He also learned that they, too, had to offer up a good deal of their food and gold to the Lunattacks each moon-time...and again Saber felt indignation, anger that they were being manipulated. He had stayed on there a week or so, having been told by those there that it was the last town for miles. So many miles that none of them had ever gone far enough to_ reach_ another town to the east. There might not even be one. 

However, while he was there, he talked with the inhabitants he had made friends with. He asked them why they had to do as the Lunattacks told them to. They had not known whether they were mortal or not, but they listened to the boy's tale with great interest. It was a large town, larger than any he had yet seen. He had told them that there could not be more than thirty of the Lunattacks living in their fortress and they agreed. For the size of their town, all of the Lunattacks came on gathering day. 

With each day that passed, Saber grew more and more convinced that being forced to bend to the will of the demonic-looking creatures and their master, whoever he was, was wrong. He thought of the Nai and all the people there, and his own people, and all the other villages he had passed. He had talked there, too, although in places he only stayed a night or so he did not think they had taken him very seriously. But in others he had made friends - and he had gotten them thinking. 

An old man in this last village had even told Saber a story of a dark-skinned woman from the south who had led an army of hundreds against the being that commanded the Lunattacks. He did not know this being's name but knew that he had been on Fourth Earth since its first cycle, before it was even known as Second Earth. Saber had listened in awe as he told of the great battle, and clenched a fist in the air as the old man told of what the woman had said to the immortal being before attacking, of the fight that lasted all day, and ended with the courageous woman's death. He told this story that had been passed on by survivors of that great battle decades ago. So, people _had_ tried to resist them before, and almost succeeded! If an army of hundreds had nearly succeeded, what could a thousand or ore do? Leyati had said that the biggest village in his area had that many people. If four hundred were capable of fighting, that was four hundred just in one town! 

The humans of that town had gotten to thinking about the boy's words and they were thinking that maybe he was right. 

Now Saber wanted to get home more than ever. He had so much to tell his family, and his people, and he wanted to talk to his father. He wanted to convince his people to start fighting back. Saber had experienced freedom beyond what any in his valley could: he had gone beyond the borders of the valley and explored far away lands. He decided that he liked freedom. And he decided that it was worth almost any price. The dark skinned woman from the south had known this; Saber was just now learning it. 

As the last of the autumn leaves fell from the bare branches, Saber set off alone once more, again with a full load of supplies. As he walked into the bitter wind, gloves on and hat pulled low, he realized something, the same thing he;d realized in Leyati's town. When he left his village, he had had trouble with his light clothing and the few supplies he had taken. He had tired early. But now, he carried a full duffel bag of supplies, twice what he had taken from home, and wore heavy clothing from head to foot. And he had walked through the day stopping only once to eat without getting tired. 

He grinned. He had gotten stronger over the months. He wondered if Iyen would be able to do this. Probably not. 

The sun was setting much earlier than when he'd started this journey, and away from the towns it soon became too dark, not to mention cold, to go any further. Saber built a fire in a small clearing, and had supper by its light and warmth. Pushing up dirt and leaves, he built a shelter that was more like a nest, to block the wind, and lay down upwind of the blaze. With the little dirt wall blocking the wind, and the fire beside him, he was plenty warm enough that night as he wrote his journal and closed his eyes to sleep. He felt as if he had just passed a major phase in his journey as he drifted off to sleep on the blaze-warmed ground, and dreamt of home. 

Part 22: Winter 

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	22. Winter

  
22 

Winter 

When Saber awoke, he was disoriented. He did not awake thinking he was home, as he had so many times in the first few weeks of his journey; he had been traveling too long to think that. He knew where he was, but still he was disoriented. He_ knew_ he had not moved, but then why did the ground look and feel and smell so different? 

With a frown of part puzzlement, part indignation, and part fear, Saber sat up and looked around. White! Everything was white! His campfire was completely out, and white; the trees themselves had been turned white! What kind of sorcery was this? 

Biting his lip, Saber stood, and as his sleep-fogged mind cleared, he realized the lands had not _turned_ white, they were _covered_ in it. And it was cold! The cheek that had lain on his pack as he slept had fallen to the ground in his sleep, and was now red and numb. The white, it was powderish, wet...his eyes widened in delight as he realized what it was: Snow! It was snow! In fact, it was more snow that he had ever seen in his life! And now that he looked, it was still falling, coming to rest and melt on his face, covering his jumpsuit. He shook himself and light powdery snow fell from it. 

With a delighted laugh, Saber picked some of it up, surprised that it stuck together as he did. His valley was in an area that rarely, if ever, saw snow. It saw plenty of rain, but rarely got cold enough to snow, and when it did it was not enough to cover more than little patches here and there with a light covering of it. This...this was as magic! 

The boy played in the fallen snow for a while, laughing at the shapes he could make in it, and leaving little piles of snow all around, like the dirt-castles he often made in the mud of the streams at home. When he had tired of this, he took some of the food from his pack, frowning at how hard it had gotten I the cold night. It was partially frozen. Snow was wet, how did he make a fire? He had gotten good at it, but had never been able to make one in any kind of precipitation. He tried, and he did not succeed. He cupped the pieces of dried meat in his hands for a while before eating them. It did not make them warm, but made them easier to chew at least. Saber was getting cold now. After he ate, discovering happily that he could eat the snow and it was like cold water, he gathered his pack and his belongings and continued his journey. 

According to the entries in his journal pages, it was getting into the second moon-time of winter, always the bitterest in his village. Of course bitter in his village meant you had to wear pants, shoes, and long sleeves. Sometimes a cloak. Here bitter meant the wind howled, chapping Saber's cheeks and anything else that was exposed to the frigid air. Even through the heavy clothing he had he was cold. 

Saber was a little bit worried. He knew you could die from being too hot, and had heard you could die from being too cold too. How cold did it have to be before you could freeze to death? This cold? Colder? He did know that the wind had picked up, and the snow was falling harder form above. It had been wonderful to see it for the first time, and fun to play in it...but now as he trudged through the wet snow that became increasingly deep, he began to think that he did not much care for snow unless he had a warm home to go to when he got tired of it. 

During the day, Saber began to leave the trees behind as he continued sand was journeying uphill into barren, empty lands. And yet this was the way he needed to go to reach his home. He did not know what the land below his feet was like, covered in snow as it was, but he did know that the wind was getting stronger by the hour, and wondered if it would thunderstorm. Snow was like rain, right? Could it thunderstorm with snow? He did not know. 

But if it had been rain, he would have been soaked by now, he knew that. As it was, trudging through the snow was beginning to saturate his thick leather boots as the day darkened towards night. By the time it was too dark to travel any more, his feet were soaked and getting numb. Trying to fight the fear of knowing he was too far from the last village to make it there, and knowing that winter was only now getting into its coldest times, he peeled the wet boots off, grimacing as the bitter wind actually was painful against his nearly numb feet. He bit his lip and pulled his jumpsuit legs down to cover them, and it was a little better. It pulled the clothing down uncomfortably around his neck, but that he could tolerate. The water-resistant jumpsuit was keeping the rest of him dry for now. 

From one extreme to the other, his father always said when he witnessed something do one thing one minute, then the total opposite the next. This trip was definitely a case of that: He had nearly died in the sweltering desert, and now was afraid the same thing might happen here in the numbing cold. Building up a wall of snow around him, Saber curled up in the little crater he had made, covering his face by pulling his hat around it, and tried to sleep. It was not easy. 

The next morning, the child traveler woke up and panicked. He felt hemmed in all around, and looked and saw white; only white. He sat up, moving snow aside, feeling some go down the front of the jumpsuit, feeling it above him, around him...he was buried alive! No, wait! Cautiously, Saber raised a hand through the light snow that had fallen during the night, and felt the cold wind through his glove as it broke the snow above. He stood and breathed a sigh of relief. That had been a shock, waking to discover it had snowed in his snow-shelter during the night, and snowed enough to come up to the top of his thigh! 

The snow had fallen lightly enough so that his natural sleep movements had made cavities plenty airy enough to breathe, but still it was a shock. People were not meant to be buried in _anything!_ Saber wearily ate, then walked on. During the night, his jumpsuit had slowly began to get wet, and by the middle of the day, the first moisture reached his skin. His light fur afforded some protection, but not much, He had had to don his soaked boots once more, and again his feet were almost numb, and he staggered through the deep snow as he walked. As many times before, he wished he was home, safe in his bed. His family would think him dead by now, he knew that. 

As he walked, he kept blinking his eyes to the endless sea of snow. It stopped somewhere around noon, but he almost could not tell. If not for the fact he did not feel it anymore on his face, he would not have known it. All the boy saw was white, the reflective snow bouncing enough light so that even the shadows were banished. The sky looked white; the ground was white, everything! Saber was not able to tell where the land and the sky met, if he looked anywhere but to his own feet, he felt like he was walking in an empty void. He did not know the term snow-blind, but he now knew what it was like. 

Shivering, half soaked, Saber continued walking even when night fell., He could not see anything during the day anyway, he saw no reason to let the dark stop him. He worked on feel alone, as nothing lived out here. Nothing moved, there was no sound, and the darkness was complete. The clouds covered the moon and the stars... He was very frightened. When he could go no further, he slept, but he had not gotten very far that day. He had been going steadily uphill the past week or so, but just in this day, the slope had radically steeper. Afraid he would not survive the next day, he slept. 

Saber had been closer to death in the desert, but he did not know that. He knew hot weather, knew how much of it a person could take. The cold was unfamiliar. But he _would_ have died within the week, had he not found shelter. Late in the afternoon that day, Saber began to see something in the endless white: a shadow, some hints of an icy blue. 

Fervently hoping it was not his mind playing a trick on him, Saber waded through the snow, faster, as fast as he could. By the time afternoon was turning into evening, with the young boy fighting the slope of the mountain the whole way, he could see that his mind had not played a joke on him! He had hoped for a village, somewhere he could find some shelter...but this was the last thing he had expected. Before him as he stared was what he could have only called a palace. Like in the storybooks. "Wow...!" 

A huge, tall front door graced the palace in the snow, leading up to a magnificent structure that tapered into towers and spires. As night fell, the boy approached slowly, wondering who lived in this magnificent place. He heard nothing still, but the wind, now having the spires to whistle through. Saber stumbled to the front door, pounding on it. "Hello?" he cried. "Is anyone there! I need help!" No answer...he felt the place was deserted...it had a creepy feel to it, as if it had been abandoned; he felt no one there. 

Saber tried the door, but it did not budge but a bit. He looked up to see ice caked over the door, and bit his lip. He backed up and rammed the door, which had not been opened in centuries, jarring his numb skin and making it feel like it was burning. The ice around it had caked over many, many times, sometimes broken by the wind, and sometimes gaining enough weight to have fallen on its own. The half-frozen human child had to ram it several times, but the ice was not that strong, and finally he was able to break it. With trembling hands, that shook form excitement, fear, and mostly cold, Saber opened the doors. 

Part 23: A Graveyard of Ice 

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	23. A Graveyard of Ice

  
23 

A Graveyard of Ice 

"I don't believe it! I just don't believe it!" Earthquake exclaimed, hopping up and down on his powerful pistons in agitation. The short, round Lunattack was in the control room of Skytomb, as the Lunattacks returned from taking the offerings the townspeople had set up for Mumm-Ra...or rather were _supposed _to. It was the day for the village of Tisatria to give their goods. But when the Lunattacks came with Skytomb and the five or so Lunattacks approached, they were not greeted by the dozen or so humans that usually met them, but a small army of about fifty fighters and a few villagers. Shocked at first, the Lunattacks had only listened to the apparent leader's blathering about freedom and not bowing town to their rule anymore. 

When they got over their surprise, Fintii had stepped forward with Havoc and grabbed the spokesperson. He had been a young warrior. Had been. Havok had crushed the young man, bear hugging him until his ribs cracked, and buckled in, and his lungs were squeezed and ruptured. The others had watched in horrified fascination, and the Lunattacks had thought that this would deter the rest of them, but they attacked! They dared attack the Lunattacks of Plundaar! 

They had taken some injuries, but in retaliation for this outrage, they had taken Skytomb and terrorized the entire town, blasting buildings down, firing at the town square, scattering humans like bowling pins. They had finally left with the admonition that next time they had better have a double offering or there would be problems. 

Icrii growled, nursing a sprained arm and a slash across her face. "They learned their lesson. Those miserable humans will not dare defy us again, not unless they want their village destroyed." 

"You can't bring a people to their knees if there are none to kneel, Icrii," Earthquake said peevishly. The Lunattacks had been outraged, as this was the first resistance they had seen. Psychren, also known as Psycho, had had a good time retaliating. 

Icerii was wrong, though. The people of Tisatria, the last village young Saber had traveled through before journeying through the empty forest, and the wastelands beyond, did not intend to grovel. They had discovered what Saber had known for a long time: enough was enough. They had lived in oppression long enough, under the tyranny of a lord they had never even seen. There were many that wanted to submit, that wanted to protect the village. However, a certain village elder was thinking of a dark skinned warrior from the Dark Continent, and a small boy from a faraway village that had the courage to do what none of his people had before. No, his people would not be beaten down this time. Because enough was _enough._

Unaware of how he had affected that village of humans, Saber had entered the massive castle in the snow, and stepped inside. The huge doors shut behind him, making the boy jump, and he was in darkness. He had seen windows on the outside, but the sun had set, and they would not admit light until morning. 

Saber sat down on a hard, smooth surface that almost felt like smooth wood, and again took off his wet boots. The floor was cold, and had it been light enough, Saber could have seen his breath puff from his mouth, but the wind could not touch him inside here, although it howled eerily outside. Moving in pitch-blackness, and his shaking becoming more that of excitement and fear than cold, Saber moved barefoot through a dark, silent hall. He walked slowly, his hands splayed in front of him so that he did not run into anything but it was a long time before he did. At the end of the long hallway, his numbed feet encountered something soft, and peasant to the touch. He bent, removed a glove, and felt the floor. Carpet! He knew some people that had carpet! And it was soft. Cold, but soft. 

He did not now where he was, but he knew he was better off here than out there, and laid down right where he was. He could sleep until first light and then see just where he had ended up. 

When he did open his eyes, Saber thought he must be dreaming. But when he sat up, yawned, and rubbed his eyes, he knew he was not. He vaguely noticed that some of the feeling had returned to his feet, whose skin was red and angry-looking, and he just as vaguely realized that his half frozen body was a little warmer. However, that was not what had him so awed. The room he was in, the room that led from the long hallway was huge, vast. It almost could be the home of a giant, he thought as he looked around. It looked like a library, with shelves of books lining the walls, and large, comfortable chairs around the vast room. There was a he fireplace at one end, which Saber was never so happy to see, and next to it, a large pile of firewood. Above it was a glass case with a large sword inside, the hilt looking like it was made of gold, and above that a portrait. 

Saber stood a little unsteadily and approached the picture above the fireplace. It showed a...person? A creature, perhaps, although Saber felt that he was sentient. It was a face that had coarse fur covering it, with sharp, intelligent looking eyes peering from the thick fur. It had the same features Saber's own face had, but they were heavier, more feral looking, and meaner if Saber had to describe it. And yet, there was pride in the carriage of the creature' head: it looked like someone proud of his people, honorable. 

Of course, that was a lot to assume, but the way a person held his head could tell a lot. 

"What is this place?" Saber asked himself, even as he knelt to drag a large log from the pile and shove it in the fireplace. He grabbed a few twigs obviously put there as kindling, and after a little while had a nice, warm fire going. He stripped off his wet clothing, hanging it on the poker nearby. He hung his belt and dagger there as well, and set his boots, gloves and hat in front of it as he warmed himself by the flames. He sighed in relief. He'd thought he would die out there in that frozen wasteland where it seemed the only thing alive was he. 

Well of course, he was the only one foolish enough to be traipsing around in the dead of winter, he thoguht to hismelf, and laughed. 

But here... While his body thawed, more or less, Saber looked around the room. The chairs were huge: not just oversized, but scaled differently, as if for people seven, maybe eight feet tall! That was almost twice Saber's own height. As the fire warmed the room, and Saber could feel all his body parts again, he climbed up into one of the chairs and found it was very soft and comfortable. Well that was his bed for a few nights. Now that he had found this place, he did not want to leave any time soon. He had enough supplies from his hunting and the last town. He hoped. 

After just resting and recovering for a few minutes, Saber got the urge to look around; he still did not know if anyone lived there. Leaving his pack behind, he grabbed his clothing and boots, which had finally dried by the fire, donned them, and stepped hesitantly back into the hallway. "Hello?" he called cautiously, walking down the tiled corridor, and looking up at the windows at the end, casting the sun's light into the hall. "I-is anyone here? I'm not here to steal, or attack or anything!" 

But he did not hear, sense, smell, or see anyone as he made his way down the hallway. He saw other corridors branching from this one, and thought that it would take days just to see the whole building. He opened a door, and gasped. 

Behind this door was a long, long room, with a long, long table in it. It looked like a banquet hall. His own   
village had something similar, although not nearly as grand, ornate, or as big. But that was not what had made the boy gasp. Seated at this great table were thirty or so creatures like the one whose portrait was above the fireplace...but they did not move. They were not alive. 

Perfectly preserved by the cold, the people, as it was clear now they _were_ sentient people, mostly sat at the table; although some lay on the floor, as if whatever had struck them did so when they had risen from their seats. Whatever it was must have been quick. 

Chilled, and not by the cold air, Saber walked shakily into the freezing room among the dead warriors. He saw blades, and lances of ice, and shields of stone and metal. Most were not carrying these weapons, as it was clear it had been meantime, but some had them in hand, perhaps hoping they could fight what attacked them. 

He found himself thinking of what the Unicorn Guardians had told him so many months ago: the latest disaster to hit this planet had been a weapon from another world. A gas weapon, which had changed the very air, and killed off many species. It must have been quick for these people. He hoped it had been painless, although the eternal expressions on the faces were that of pain. 

He looked to the left to see one that had remained standing, who must have fallen against the wall, and by chance been balanced long enough to freeze that way. Gooseflesh ran across his arms and legs as he realized the face of this frozen warrior was familiar. It hung above the fireplace. Even in death, this warrior snarled defiantly, clutching his mighty lance, holding his shield before him. But now the shield hung limply, and the lance pointed at the floor, frozen eternally. 

Shuddering uncontrollably, Saber ran from the room, and back to the secure feel of the library, where his life-giving fire burned. He curled up in the large chair and tried not to think that hours before that awful event had happened, the creature had probably sat in that very chair perhaps reading a book, or just enjoying the fire. 

The boy decided he did not want to do too much more exploring that day, although before he lost the light, he did look around a tiny bit, avoiding the banquet room, and ready to find any more of the dead giant-men. He did not, but he did find what he was looking for: the kitchen. It was well stocked with food perfectly preserved from the icy temperatures, and he pulled down from the cupboards food he hoped he would be able to eat. He would find out. He had had to climb up onto the tall counters, but had managed. He had tried the ornate-looking water pump, but any water that had been in the pipes was long frozen without people there to run and warm the castle and its water systems. That was all right: he had fire, and he had snow. He would have water. 

Saber brought the meat and the strange looking vegetables to the library, and thawed them by the fire. Using his spear, he set the meat over the fire to cook, while eating the newly thawed greens. They tasted decent enough. There was plenty of food, and plenty of wood. Saber could stay here for the bitterest part of the winter, and move on one more when the weather began to warm a bit.. He had been gone over half a year now, another month would not be anything. Yes. He had enough here to keep him alive and comfortable for a month. 

The boy did not get sick from the food he ate, and he was glad at that. After that first time in the Berbils' village he did not want to go through that again. Curling up in the large chair, Saber fell into a secure, exhausted sleep. 

Part 24: Fighting for Freedom 

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	24. Fighting for Freedom

  
24 

Fighting for Freedom 

"Icrrii's dead." The disgusted words were spat at the short leader of the Lunattacks as she took Skytomb away from a battlefield of shops and buildings. 

"What?!" she shrieked. "HOW?" 

Without even a wince at the unpleasant sound, Chilldon snarled and flung the female Lunattack's blade to the floor at Havoc's feet. "We were outnumbered, that's how!" 

Infra was nursing a sprained arm, and the several bruises and cuts they all had gotten. "We've let them advance too far, Fintii," she said, hatred in her hoarse voice. "They've developed gunpowder weapons. That was what hit Skytomb. _As_ we were trying to retreat from the ground battle." 

"They also have hand held weapons!" Earthquake said. He had been the only one to escape serious harm, only some cuts and bruises. He hopped up and down angrily, denting the solid metal floor before Fintii screeched at him to stop it. 

"The mighty Lunattacks of Plundaar? Stopped by a bunch of HUMANS?!" A cannon. So that was what had hit the great fortress, knocking it out of its stable hover. They had had to retreat. 

"They aren't humans," Infra said, flopping disgustedly in a chair. 

"They're Nai." 

"Same thing! None of them have powers as we do, and you could not handle a town of them? One TOWN?!" 

Chilldon growled angrily and grabbed Fintii's tiny tunic collar. "They had projectile weapons, Fintii!" He screamed, ignoring Havoc's warning growl and his large hands around his own arms. "They're hundreds strong! We can't _fight _an army that big! Even Psychren retreated!" He let go of Fintii as the others simply watched. He had taken a nasty gash in the side, severe enough to be concerned about blood loss, and it had not improved his temper. 

Fintii stared at him in shock, then shook it off. They had taken a loss, everyone was shaken up. "Release him, Havoc," she said. As agitated as the others, Havoc took to pacing the room. 

"Havoc hate Nai," the semi-sentient beast declared. 

"Yeah, us too," Infra growled. 

Sounder, who had a bloodstained bandage around his head, spoke up with his eerie calm, even now sounding only slightly strained. "This rebellion was no coincidence, either." 

And so it had not been a coincidence. Saber had not passed through the largest of the Nai towns, although he _had_ met a good deal of its traders at market before he left, and they had taken a liking to the spirited boy. Even so, that would not have been enough for them to rebel, but Leyati had also done some long thinking about the young boy's words about freedom and repression. He had not been able to find the words he needed due to his youth, but his spirit showed through nevertheless. And Leyati knew the townsfolk well. The more he talked, the more they all realized, as had the denizens of Tisatria, that enough was enough. And this one had been a victory. 

Fintii turned to look a dangerous dagger at the hyperaudio Lunattack, who returned her gaze intensely. "What do you mean, Sounder?" she asked in a quiet voice. That voice said he had better explain before she had Havoc rearrange his features. 

Havoc made them all nervous, including Sounder, but he did not flinch. He was too angry at the lowlings in the villages. 

But it was Infra that answered for him, laughing amazedly. "That human brat we held here a week or so?" she said. Fintii nodded, narrowing her eyes. "The kid survived, and somehow made his way all the way down to the sea. He found a water supply somewhere." 

"And he made it all the way down to the Nai villages!" Earthquake growled, punching the wall and leaving a large dent. Fintii did not even notice. "It must have taken months! He's been telling everyone what he knows about us! People that thought us to be demons know better now! Especially ones we've fought!" 

Fintii raged, screeching an incoherent shriek. "That's the seventh one!!" 

"It's the ninth one," Infra corrected. 

"I've listened, Fintii," Sounder said. "I've heard the people speaking of a human boy that passed through, telling tales of us. Telling them what we are. Some mention him by name, and he's the one that's convince them to rebel." 

Fintii was quiet for a very long time as she thought, the eyes of the others all on her. "It's time to tell Mumm-Ra," she said quietly. The others' faces showed varying degrees of distaste, but none argued. After many decades of power, the Lunattacks of Plundaar had a problem. 

*** 

"Who dares disturb my rest?!" a low, ancient voice demanded, as the cracked, yellowed lid of a sarcophagus slid open. A group of six Lunattacks stood before him as he emerged: Fintii on her mount, Psychren, Sounder, Infra, Earthquake, and Chilldon. Most looked the worse for wear, and they all were angry. "What is the meaning of this disruption?" 

"The villagers, mighty Mumm-Ra," Fintii growled. "They've revolted." 

The Lunattacks told Mumm-Ra of what had been happening the past few weeks, two weeks after Saber had found the ice fortress. Here and there, another would add a detail, or correct something, and as they explained to Mumm-Ra, his expression slowly darkened. "So what do we do?" Psychren demanded, his fists clenched in rage. 

Mumm-Ra was silent for a long time, only digesting what he had been told. Seemed that this one child had done what many warriors could not. Still he said nothing, only waved his hand over the waters of his cauldron, and gazed into it. The Lunattacks circled around the pool to look as well, as a wavy image of the very village they had been defeated at appeared. They were tending wounded, but for the most part they were celebrating. They had won a battle against the demons of the rocklands, and with no casualties. Mumm-Ra growled angrily, seeing similar scenes of the past days in other towns. That would make things that much more difficult now that they knew it was possible to win. 

He searched his powers, hunting for the human boy in his cauldron., but to his frustration he could not find him. Saber had gotten too far, and even with his vast powers, he could not locate one small boy on a whole planet of wilderness. He looked up at the Lunattacks. "Find him," he growled in a low, rumbling voice. It was quiet, but the power there was evident to all present. "We will deal with the villagers later, but I want the child found. We will show the people of Third Earth what happens to those who oppose the Mighty Mumm-Ra!" 

The Lunattacks shouted, making similar vows, and raising their fists. Fintii nodded. "We will find him, Mumm-Ra, and that insolent brat will rue the day he crossed the Lunattacks!" 

Mumm-Ra did not answer her, as he had raised his hands to the ceiling and repeated an incantation he had not uttered in years. The Lunattacks ran from the chamber, not in fear, but to begin their own search, eager as Mumm-Ra was for the boy's hide. 

The ancient priest had once told the ThunderCats that time meant _nothing_ to him, and he had been right. Their brief intervention of a few dozen years was but a blink of an eye in a rule of centuries. But now it seemed he had a new adversary, and despite outward appearances, Mumm-Ra believed him to be a worthy one. 

Fully transformed, feeling the power once more of his larger, warrior's form, and clutching the hilt of the Sword of Plundaar, Mumm-Ra thought about his old adversaries. They had been among the best, the most difficult. He had followed them to their infernal New Thundera, and been unsuccessful in defeating them. He had been beaten down, humiliated, even by his own masters. But soon Tygra and Pumyra had joined the others from Third Earth, their fortresses now fully automated, and watched over by their allies on the planet. It had been that way for years while he pursued them on their own world. 

Then had come the catastrophe. The blasted do-gooders had tried to come back and help, knowing of all the suffering and death the denizens of the planet were going through, but they had not been able to set foot on the planet. The air had been poisoned, lethal to many, and incompatible with the respiratory systems of the felines. Any cats on the planet's surface had died, and even now could not survive. Even the ThunderCats' breathing gear was ineffective, and he knew that quite a few of the thirteen they had then numbered had almost died. Saddened, they had left, never to return. 

New Thundera was now a huge, bustling, productive planet, numbering in billions, as their original home had been, and few knew about Third Earth. Those who did knew it in legend. Mumm-Ra had returned to Third Earth, nothing in his way now to undisputed rule. Few species had been left by the disaster, and others had been crippled, like the Bolkins; yet others had adapted, like the humans. And slowly they grew again, and Mumm-Ra's domain was established once more. 

And now it was being threatened again; not by a trained warrior, not by an immortal, or by armies. It was being threatened by one small human child with the charisma to convince others to fight, and the will to survive the hardship thrown at him. It was time to end this now. 

*** 

Leyati's own town had been among those that had refused the monthly offering. They had taken injuries, but no deaths, and their morale had been boosted. Maybe the human was right; maybe there _was_ a way to break free of the tyranny. 

The old Nai fisherman was out on his boat when it happened. It was an unusually warm day for winter, and he had decided to see what his traps had gotten, if anything. He had plenty saved and stored and frozen to last until he could go out every day again, but it was always a good idea to have extra just in case. 

And so he did not see the flying figures burst into the village. He did not hear the cries as the four-seater Icerunner began firing on the people. He did not feel the terror as the other, a lone man flying in the air, began to fire at the Nai with fingers that shot lightning as red as blood. He did not hear the shouts that what they had always feared had happened: the Lunattacks' lord had come to their town and the rest of the demon-type beings were flying through the streets in vehicles, shooting randomly at the Nai. 

Skytomb hovered above the town, the most of the Lunattacks below, terrorizing the people. Even then, some of them stood firm, and it was these that would regret it. 

As Leyati started back to the shore, not having caught any fish, Mumm-Ra grabbed one of the villagers that dared defy him. He lifted the terrified Nai off his feet and flew several yards into the air, blasting the unfortunate man's body with raw electricity, then letting the seared body drop back down with a sickening crunch. He smiled unpleasantly as he saw the Lunattacks wreaking their own havoc. 

Soon they had the most of the Nai cowering behind buildings, or crouching on the ground, ready to run. They had a little group of about thirty out in the open, unable to run for fear of being killed, shot in the back. It was one of these that Fintii strode forward to question. Havoc took a hold of the woman by the torso, squeezing her until she screamed, and her ribs could be heard to crack. Then he topped. "Where is he?!" Fintii demanded. "Where is that human brat?" 

"I don't know!" the woman gasped, then shrieked again as Havoc shook her injured body. She kicked feebly at him. 

"TELL ME!" 

The female kept up her claim to not know where the boy had been, or anything about him...Havoc flexed his massive, powerful muscles, and crushed her with his bare hands. He had not killed anyone in a long time, and now was back in the game. He was enjoying it. 

Mumm-Ra watched all this gleefully, enjoying fighting once more as much as the Lunattack brute. He watched as the Lunattacks caught and systematically interrogated the villagers, killing those who did not give them information. Eventually, by violence, threatening the children that had been caught in the town square, by killing, then were able to find out the one man in the village that might know where the boy had gone to. Leaving the Nai in the town square to run, or to cower, or tend their injuries and cry over their dead, the group of evil headed for the east side. 

Part 25: It Begins 

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	25. It Begins

  
25 

It Begins 

Leyati was just mooring his boat, had just tied it to the dock, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. The old Nai turned around, a mildly curious expression on his face, but that expression turned to shocked fear when he saw who had a hold of his shoulder. "What in the - " he began, when a large fist connected with the side of his face, sending him sprawling off the pier. He would have fallen, dazed, into the icy-cold waters, had he not been grabbed by the collar of his jumpsuit by an abnormally strong hand. 

Facing the old fisherman were five Lunattacks; the fat round one having the grip on his collar, and judging by the balled fists, the blue colored one had just decked him. Earthquake dropped him on the deck, and the purple-hued Nai scrambled to his feet, looking at the beings in alarm. "Wh-what is this?" Even thinking as Saber did, that they had submitted far long enough, he was still frightened by the demonic people. 

Chilldon growled and stepped forward to grab the old man's jumpsuit collar. "Don't play around with us, old man. Where is he?" 

"Who?" he asked, although he had a pretty good idea. The kid was in trouble. 

Chilldon shook him hard. "I am NOT tolerant of lowlifes, Nai!" he snarled. "Tell us where the human brat is, NOW!" 

"L-l-look, I don't know what y're talking about! Let me be!" 

Chilldon looked as if he were about to rip the old man apart, but was stopped by a hand on his own shoulder. "He is _mine_ to mangle." Psychren removed Chilldon's hands and hoisted the Nai into the air. He put a hand around his throat. "Now," he growled, his eyes nearly blazing. This was an expression that instilled fear in many stout hearts. It did no less now. "We will find the miserable little human filth, Nai. And we _know _you had contact with him. Now. You can either tell us where he went, and who he had contact with or we will simply rip you from limb to limb and feed the fish with your body." The powerful psychic Lunattack could easily have made the old man tell them what they wanted, but he much preferred the physical method at first. 

Leyati made a choked sound, and started fighting the Lunattack. Chilldon laughed and froze the old man's legs so he could not move them, which frightened him more. "I-I-I don't _know_ for sure where he is!" he choked out. "Only what direction he took!" 

Psychren dropped him, where he landed on the deck, falling with his legs frozen stiff out. "Then tell us, wretch!" he demanded, kicking him in the side. 

Earthquake laughed and bounced the old man back when he rolled away from the psychic Lunattack. "H he went north!" he cried. "I don't know where he went from there!" Saber had gone east. 

"That's better," Chilldon sneered, and fired a thawing blast at the old man's legs, freeing them of the ice. He grinned at Psychren as the other Lunattacks watched. Skytomb loomed threateningly overhead, keeping away any that might interfere, and Mumm-Ra hovered just out of notice. 

Psychren returned the grin and looked back to the cowering man. "You know, it is well known that you lowlifes lie, old man... So we are going to test you a bit." As Leyati watched, fascinated and terrified, Psychren took his Psyche Club from his belt. made in the fashion of his clan for thousands of years, it was a luminescent, nearly weightless orb a little smaller than a man's head, set in an attractive wooden staff. 

The sadistic Lunattack cast the staff Leyati's way, and he flinched, thinking he would be struck with it. But all that happened was that the orb separated from the wood and floated by itself! Leyati gaped at it in shock. 

The others snickered as Psychren narrowed his eyes, smiling unpleasantly at the Nai. "Give in to me, you pathetic wretch. I want you to tell me what I want to know, and you will not lie to me. You have no choice. Tell me now!" 

Leyati blinked confusedly, as he felt something he had never felt in his life before. He felt as if fingers of fog were making their way into his mind, blocking him off from it. He felt dizzy, woozy, as if he were about to pass out. But at the point where he _would_ have passed out, he kind of hovered there, half conscious. "I-I can't...I can't tell...." Leyati shook his head. It was getting difficult for him to think. "He...he went...he went east..." he mumbled, as if sleep talking. 

Psychren laughed and retracted the orb. "Oh, you have made a mistake, you sniveling Nai scum!" As Leyati shook his head, his mind slowly coming back to the realization of what had just happened, Psychren looked upwards. "Mumm-Ra!" he called gleefully. "This mortal just lied to us, your servants!" Normally he would not have called himself a servant of anyone, but this was for the Nai's benefit. 

To Leyati's horror, there came from the sky what he at first thought to be a giant bat, but in truth was a massive warrior, with the ability to fly through the air like one. He was taller than anyone he had ever seen, even more than the mind controlling being that had just questioned him or the reptiles that were their allies. Muscles rippled on every inch of his body visible, and his eyes were red. _Red _Not like the albino animals he had seen before in his life, but a lurid, glowing, unnatural red with no iris or pupil that he could see. Leyati shrank back. This must be him. This must be the immortal he had told Saber about a month ago. 

"So," the demon growled, glaring down at him with his hateful red eyes. "You dare to defy my servants? you dare to rise up, to refuse me what I demand?!" His eyes glowed a bright red, like a blacksmith's forge, and he raised his hands out in front of him. 

"N-n-now, he-he's only a boy!" the old man protested fearfully. "What harm could he do you?" 

"Silence!" Mumm-Ra growled, sending out a brief shock of red electricity, lightning from his very fingertips. Leyati yelped in pained shock. "You will regret defying Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living!" The demon let loose with a barrage of lightning, the raw electricity coursing through the old man's body. He screamed in pain, his mind overloaded with it, his eyes seeing nothing but flashes of light too bright to bear. 

After what seemed an eternity to the Nai fisherman, and while the Lunattacks laughed at him and the few people on the dock cowered in horror, Mumm-Ra stopped. Leyati was unconscious. "East," the demon rumbled, turning to the Lunattacks. 

"Yeah!" Infra said, raising a fist. "Let's get that little piece of dung!" 

Sounder nodded his silent agreement, and the Lunattacks dispersed to reenter Skytomb, which slowly landed to admit them. 

When all had left the village, leaving the people shaken...but angry, which was important...Leyati groaned and opened his eyes. Every move he made was agonizing; he had never felt such pain before. But now what he felt was concern. 

His neighbor and fellow fisherman ran over as soon as the Lunattacks and Mumm-Ra were out of sight, and helped him up. "We've got t' get y' t' a doctor, Leyati!" he exclaimed, his accent even thicker than his friend's. 

Leyati shook his head, slowly standing. The pain was beginning to subside, thankfully. "N-no...no, I'm all right, Helkin. We've...we can't let that demon kill that child. He's hardly started his life. 

Helkin nodded. "Y're right, m' friend. Y're right. An' it goes f'rther 'n that too. The villagers don't want t' take this anymore. Y'r young friend is right., It's time to stand, m' friend. It's time t' stand." 

The two Nai looked after the way the Lunattacks had left for a moment, before Leyati got a hold of himself. "All right. We need to get to him before that horrible demon does." He sighed. "We only have carts and pack animals. I only hope he's able to avoid them long enough." He looked to his neighbor. "Round up all that can leave. Tell everyone you can what's going on. I've got people I know can look after my place while I'm gone. I've sold most my catches, the rest can be payment to whoever I get to look after the place. The Hetchi boy c'n do it. Get everyone you can, and all the supplies y' can. Warriors if y' can so long's there's enough here to defend the place. I am going to talk to a few people in the neighboring towns." 

Helkin nodded and ran off, and Leyati began to the next village, the large one, less than an hour away. The next day they started off, a vast party of Nai and reptiles, numbering more than two hundred, from the seven villages around Leyati's own. Most of them had at least heard of the human boy, and all knew about the resistance that had been rising. Those that had met the human boy that had started all of this had managed to get together a rescue party as it was, and they set out. 

Part 26: Final Leg 

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	26. Final Leg

  
26 

Final Leg 

Blissfully unaware of the search of Fourth Earth for him, Saber had lived comfortably in the huge ice palace for those two weeks. After a few days, he had gone to explore the rest of the place, even looking back in on the ghostly banquet in the dining room. In the adjoining kitchen, he had found a few more of the beings, and a large animal he could only assume was a cat. It looked kind of like the cat fortress. He had been checking out a bowl of some kind of food, it seemed, and had a look of mild curiosity on his face. He was huge, big enough to ride, and Saber felt a deep sadness that he had to die. Just like the rest. And it looked as if it had killed this magnificent creature more quickly and mercifully than the warriors in the dining hall. 

Elsewhere in the palace were great bedrooms, many ornate, decorated with weapons, or pictures. Many had fireplaces, but the boy preferred the secure feeling of the library, and wanted to stay there rather than a bedroom. He had the whole place to himself so why not? He'd found he could not read the language but he liked it there anyway. It felt safe. 

Over the first two weeks, he did little but rest. He had been through much, done much travelling, and seen more than he could ever have hoped to see. He needed the rest, needed to get his thoughts put back together, and figure out just what he was doing. 

He had no idea that the Lunattacks of Plundaar, and the most powerful being on the planet searched for him even now. He had no idea they were using sensors, that Infra and her brother were using their powerful vision to search for his heat signature. As he slept at night, he had no idea that they were questioning the villagers in all the towns they came across. It was a good thing. Had he known all this, he would have panicked, would have run. And they would have caught him. 

However the evil beings would not catch up to him as fast as they hoped to. Leyati had mislead the Lunattacks of Plundaar, even with Psychren's mind control. They had asked what direction Saber had _left_ the village. He had gone east. But the old Nai knew something that they had not asked. He knew of the boy's intentions. He knew Saber had planned to head south after a while, and so would be heading southeast. 

And Leyati prayed that by the time the demon and his servants figured it out, they would be so far out of the way they would not be able to find their quarry. He also hoped that the improvised army caught up to the boy before it was too late. The Nai and their reptile allies had picked up people from the other villages he'd passed through and stayed in, and felt confident that they could fight the demons off. 

*** 

As the weeks went by, Saber felt as if he had given himself enough of a break. His mind was not so stressed, his body not so tired. Although the physical weariness was not so pressing as it might have been at first, had he gotten this far. At first it had seemed as if his muscles would fall right off, the were so sore from walking and carrying. But now they seemed to be working in perfect harmony with each other. 

He was feeling homesick, and getting the urge to travel again, and after he had been at the massive fortress a little over a month he prepared to leave. The bitterest part of winter was over, and there were only a couple more months of it. That would not be too hard to handle. 

Saber wondered if he should take something warmer than what he had, but he felt funny taking anything from the place. He felt wrong. Still, these people were long dead, and would not need it. He would only take what he needed. And besides, he doubted they would mind, had they _been_ alive. 

The clothing was out. There would not be a skin there that would fit the small boy. He had seen no children in the great hall, although he figured there must have been at some point or another. There_ was_ some small clothing, but even they were far too big. Maybe an infant's clothing, or a small child's would have worked, but he could find none. 

Still, there were other things. As he carefully repacked the things from his duffel back into it, he got some dried jerky and fruit from the kitchen, looking sadly one last time at the frozen feline and the men there. He found some parchment, cut it down to size for him, and packed it as well. He found a waterskin of manageable size and took it. He was able to fashion a cloak of fur from one of the larger garments. 

Having enough writing sticks and other things, he finally dressed in the jumpsuit Leyati had given him, slid his boots on, and doused the fire in the fireplace with melted snow. His supplies were heavy now but he was strong enough now to manage it. He would just have to go slow. He threw the heavy cloak about himself. 

Finally, it was time to leave. He was approaching the final leg of his journey, he knew it, and his heart raced with excitement. He felt like something was happening, but he did not know what. Even if that feeling was wrong, what would happen when he got home? What would his parents say? What would they think? How would the villagers treat him? He did know what happened to the crazies that left the Valley. They came back raving about things no one had ever heard of, and were thought lunatics...of course they had _acted_ as such. As if their minds could not handle what they saw, and snapped. Would they treat him as such? Even he knew he was a different person than when he left his little valley. 

Even if they believed his tales, what would his parents think? Would they be angry? He thought him dead by now, of that he was sure. W hat would they say when they found out he had survived? When they realized he had survived all this time on his own? That he had fought the demons of the rocklands and survived? And when he told them they were mortal.... 

Saber started from the ice palace, shocked at the cold wind. He had on his gloves and his hat once again, and set out through the snow. It was considerably less deep now. He thought as he walked, that he did not think his people would rise up against the demons. His people were too set in their ways. Unless he could somehow show them...if he could make them realize they _could _be fought,. that his people did not have to be confined to the valley they lived in. 

It did not matter for now. He would think of that when he got there. Now, he still had weeks, maybe months of travel ahead of him. As he got closer to his home, his directional sense was stronger and stronger, and he knew he was going the right way. Now if only he could stay on that path and not be deterred by any more oceans. 

Saber had to trudge through the snow for several days before it began to subside once again. It was still chilly, and he figured that he was two weeks into the second moon-time of winter. He finally realized, as he looked back, that he had climbed a mountain! It _had_ been tough going, and as he looked back now, he could barely see the massive fortress on the mountain, which was vaguely hook shaped. no wonder it had taken him so long! It was steep! It was a much shorter trek going down the other side. The boy was now going steadily southwest, and he noticed the temperature change, and was puzzled by it. He was not going fast enough or far enough, and time was not passing that quickly to warrant that kind of temperature change so quickly. 

He was not all that disappointed though, as it was getting warmer as he went. 

Saber was soon able to ditch the cloak, gloves and the hat. Of course since after the sea he had been travelling up, uphill, and he learned in school that when you got higher, it got colder. Now he knew that to be true. Saber was gradually getting into more trees and less rock, which he was happy. He also found many streams of icy water: snow runoff, though he would not know the term were it mentioned to him. He did know that it was clear, crisp, and refreshing. He filled his canteens of it, the metal one and the skin he had found in the palace. 

It was still chilly, no doubt about that, but the snow and cheek-chapping winds were gone, and he was glad of it. That was something he had never encountered before now, and did not appreciate it too much. The snow was somewhat fun when he did not have to sleep in it. 

As he approached the final moon-time of winter, the terrain again slowly started to change. Although to his left and right the forest seemed to stretch away forever, ahead where he had to go, it seemed to be thinning out. It seemed to be...there was a word for it that Saber could not think of. It gave him an uneasy feeling, but as he went on, he could see that going around it might take him days. Dying out. Yes, the forest was dying out. 

As he walked, his unease increasing with every step, the trees began to die, they became withered and grayish. The air itself became humid, but not like the fresh air before a rain, but a fetid smell, like mildew or mold. There was another scent Saber's nose picked up. It smelled faintly of chemicals, like the ones he had tasted in the Berbils' fruit. This alone made him uneasy. 

Finally, the last of the forest gave way to a scaggly tree here and there, and the creek Saber had been following was down to a trickle. The boy took a long drink, filled both his canteens to the brim, and with a deep breath left it. He would have to be careful with his water from here on out. 

It was midday when he was finally able to see what kind of terrain he faced. Here, the air was thick with musty moisture, and the ground had gotten soft and mushy. It was unnaturally warm, warm enough for him to want to take off his jumpsuit and put the loincloth back on, but he did not. He did not want to expose his skin to the ground if had to sleep here. 

To his disgust, the boy found himself walking into ankle, then knee deep mud. Here and there, a dead, rotted tree told him just how livable this land was, and he was almost tempted to turn back and go around, no matter how long it took him. But he decided that if it had not harmed him yet, it would not. He hoped. 

Saber walked until nightfall, when it was getting too dark to see. He came to one of the dead trees and wondered if he dared try to climb it. He certainly could not sleep in the mud! However, when he tried to climb it, the slim tree broke at the trunk, and he fell in the mud. His eyes widened as he heard a skittering noise and saw hundreds of tiny bugs like he'd never seen, scurry from the rotten insides. He gave a cry of revulsion and got as far from the tree as he could. 

Spooked and unnerved by this, Saber stumbled around until he found a reasonably solid patch of ground, where he had to set down for the night. He took a blanket he had gotten from one of the villages and spread it on the ground, lying down on it. His duffel served as a pillow. 

Saber felt very unsafe here in this foul smelling land, which really could not be called land It was swamp. He'd never seen the likes, but there is such a place in his lesson books, that they say the ancient ones that lived on the planet had seen. He wondered how old his schoolbooks and the information in it were. 

Jumping at the numerous noises, and splashes, and alien sounding calls in the pitch black, Saber reluctantly closed his eyes. He would move quickly through here; he wanted to be as far from it as he could. 

Part 27: Wastelands 

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	27. Wastelands

  
27 

Wastelands 

Saber awoke, disgusted to find that there was a small army of tiny worm-looking things marching past his nose in perfect formation. He sat up quickly, brushing at his face. "Disgusting. This place is disgusting," he said aloud. He scratched as his face, frowning. It felt itchy and irritated, and his hands did a bit too. He looked down at them and curled his lip. So there were mosquitoes here too, or at least something like them. He had been bitten in the night on the skin that was exposed. 

He was hungry. He'd not eaten the night before, wanting to hurry on through, and now he was hungry. He opened his pack, noting the whole side was covered now in mud, and took out a meal serving of jerky. It was unseasoned, which was good, because he could not drink much water. He did not need something that would make him thirsty. 

After eating as much as he dared, as he was not sure what he could hunt here, he got up and moved on. The blanket was mud-soaked, and he was mostly so as well. He sighed, picked it up, and wrung it out before tying it onto the strap of his pack. No way would he put it back inside! 

The boy tromped through the mud most of the day, stopping only to eat, and to drink a little when he absolutely had to. He was more exhausted traveling through this terrain than any others, as he constantly had to lift his feet free of sometimes knee high mud, although he was beginning to recognize what areas would be deep and avoid them. He constantly battled two other things besides the mud, and that was the bugs and the air itself. The flying bugs were everywhere, some looked vaguely familiar, and some were none that Saber knew. 

He'd been dive bombed by the little creeps over a dozen times just by midmorning, and he was always swatting away clouds of the little gnat type things. And nearly every one of the little pests bit. 

The air, now... As Saber walked, it got worse. He could _taste_ the chemical in his mouth as he breathed, and he had to do so with both his nose and his mouth. The air was thick with humidity from the stagnant, gray-green pools. Saber hated the feel of the natural filters his people had developed when the cataclysm occurred to live with the changed atmosphere, but where he lived he had no need for him. Now, however, he did. It took him a minute to remember what muscle in his throat brought down the biological filter, but finally did, grimacing at the slight feeling of suffocation it induced. Immediately he could tell the one in his throat and the one in his nasal passages were working. The air he took into his lungs no longer burned, and did not taste like the cleaner his mother used to clean house. 

Still it was not pleasant. 

Here and there in this blasted, desolate, dead landscape, there were pools of water, and _things_ swam in them. Things. That was the only thing Saber could think of to describe what he was seeing. Monstrous creatures with two heads, or with more eyes than needed that rolled around uselessly in their misshapen sockets. He saw things that almost could have been water insects, but were as big as rats, with matted, slime coated fur on their bodies. 

He did not watch the water life too much. 

By the end of that night, nothing changed. The terrain did not change at all, and he saw no end to it on the horizon. Nothing. he began to wonder how many days he would have to travel through this nightmarish place. 

By the end of the next night, and then the next, he began to be very worried. The water in the canteen was gone, and he had started on the larger waterskin from the ice palace. The temperature increased as well, as he walked on. The landscaped changed not at all, but the heat increased. It was not natural. It was still winter, and it should not be that hot. Saber had had little choice after a while than to take off his jumpsuit and put his loincloth on, or else get dehydrated and sweat out all his water. His boots and suit dangled from his pack now as he trudged through the muck. 

The ground itself was hot too, although not unbearably so, but going through the rancid mud barefoot was sickening. 

On the morning of the fourth day, the land did change. He came to a section of huge valleys and mud-covered slopes that would not be easy to climb. There had been an earthquake there recently, causing upheaval of the land. Saber could see colonies of burrowing insects going in and out of the slopes and shuddered. Before he went through there, he would put his clothing back on, no matter how much it made him sweat. 

And now he had mud in his clothes. Perfect. Donning his gloves so that he would not be grabbing bugs as he climbed, he sloshed through standing water two feet high, and mud another half a foot to get to the first slope. 

Bracing himself, he began to climb. 

It took the boy two hours just to get over that first rise. Every time he made progress, he would slip, sending mud and bugs and water cascading over his boots. When he finally made it over, he was panting, and wanting a drink very badly. But he did not dare take water. His waterskin was now only half full, and That water was now four days old. 

At the top, he now saw at least four other slopes of this kind ahead, but before that, he saw something else in the next cliff face. This one was sheerer, but not as high, and there was something metal poking out of it! Despite his fatigue and his thirst, Saber was curious. 

Sliding down the rise to splash in knee-high standing water, he walked up to it and touched it. It slid partway out of the soft mud, and he jumped back. Tugging on it, he got it to fall into the water, and spit hastily when it splashed into his face and mouth. Scowling and wiping his mouth, and thinking that although it tasted nasty and he would never drink it, it did wet his dry mouth. 

Once the thing was freed, Saber choked at the smell of chemical that permeated even his throat filters. The thing was only about four feet wide and two tall...but the smell that Came from it! He waved the air away and got a closer look. There were some kind of colored threads that looked almost like hard, shiny cloth to him, but were actually wires. He saw a tiny, rectangular screen like in the cat fortress, that was blank. The whole thing was completely free of the strange rust that the Berbils were plagued by, although the little threads were cracked and crumbling. It looked very, very old. It was covered in layers of mud, but he cleared those away to look at unintelligible marking on the outside. It looked like writing, but not his language. 

A closer examination told him that there were several little compartments inside, and he sniffed. He choked once more and backed away, a sudden flash of intuition and memory going through his mind. He struggled to recall what the unicorn guardians had told him of the cataclysm that had taken this world into its fourth phase, fought to remember what it looked like, and knew. He looked down at it, and he knew he looked at that weapon now. 

Now feeling mixed respect, fear, and disgust, he wondered how so small a thing could kill a whole world. But then remembered the fumes that came from it. Not lethal, but unpleasant and strong. According to his immortal friends, it had happened thousands of years ago. For it to still be this strong, even after all this time, he could only imagine what damage it must have done when it first hit. 

After a moment, the mental spell broke, and the child backed away quickly from it. He wanted nothing to do with such a horrible weapon. He could not fathom a people so evil that they could build such a thing. He did not know that his own race, during the first phase of earth, had tried. It had destroyed them. 

Taking a deep breath, Saber began the second dune. 

It took him until nightfall to get past the blasted area, and about that long to get the images of death and suffering out of his head. Sometimes his imagination was too good for his liking. The next day he used the last of his water; now he was down to luck and whatever deities that were. That night, when he sat down to dinner, he decided he would risk the water here. He had a few ideas on that. One thing he had learned in school was that boiling water got rid of the germs and bacteria. Another was that thick cloth made a good filter for mud and other things. 

He had difficulty starting a fire. First, he had to find wood small enough for him to drag to the semi-solid ground he would camp on that night. Then he had to kick it until the insects vacated the wood. Then he had to _start_ the blasted fire. And that was not easy. All the wood was damp and rotted. Finding sticks firm enough to rub together was in its own a challenge of great proportions. It took him an hour to build the fire. 

Saber used the metal canteen and a stick to boil his water, and poured it through a cloth he had in his sack into the waterskin. This was a long, awkward process, and he burned himself several times, but as he let the water cool then tried a sip, he hoped it worked. It tasted nasty but it did not feel like it would make him sick. He hoped it would not. 

That night he got a bit of a stomachache but he did not become overly ill. He had found a solution to his problem. 

Saber spent a little over two weeks in this hellish land. And he found that as he moved away from the horrible weapon, that it began to get cooler. The thing had permanently damaged the land here. It had caused the nightmarish mutations he had seen in the waters, and made the air hot, and the ground spoiled. He would be glad to leave it. 

Little happened in that time, after he found the gas weapon. Only one thing of mild interest was a strewn out debris field of half buried stone and metal. The only thing he had been able to make out was the half buried head of what could have been a stone giant, a fearful thing that looked like a gargoyle that some people in his village used to decorate their houses or as talismanic protection against evil. He did not know that there had once been a great fortress here, and the lands had all but retaken the ruins. 

He did, however, that he disliked the creepy buried ruins very much when he stepped on a stone under the water and twisted his ankle. Now he had a sprained ankle to worry about on top of everything else. He would have to limp. 

But finally,_ finally_ as he made his way through the mud and the muck, he began to see change., In the distance, he saw more trees, and a rise in the land far to the left, indicating hills, instead of this endless, flat, ruined plain. A day at the most, even slowed by his hurt ankle. Finally, he would be out of this horrible place. 

Filthy, caked with mud and scum, and having been drinking boiled swamp water for a few days, he started off as fast as he could go. 

Part 28: Convergence 

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	28. Convergence

  
28 

Convergence 

Before he left the swamp, Saber had filled both his water containers with the boiled swamp water, as he had no idea when he would again hit a stream or a lake. As it was, it was only three days out when he found one. It was a small stream, three feet across at its narrowest spot, five at its widest. The water was about hip deep on the young traveler. However it was the best thing Saber had ever seen! He had traveled farther and farther away from the rancid swamp, and when he started seeing more life in the trees, and fewer mutations, he knew he was out. And now,_ real_ water. 

Saber set everything down and stripped. Or rather, he tried to strip. He got as far as one boot, and as far as pulling the jumpsuit down to his knees but he could not get his other boot off. The boy grimaced in pain as he tried to pull it from his foot, and realized that his injured ankle had probably swelled, and with the bandages it was making the boot tight. If he could not get it off, he might have to cut it; he had gotten good enough with the dagger, and it was sharp. He had learned to sharpen it in one of the villages. 

But it turned out not to be necessary. He had cried out with the pain when he finally pulled it off, and saw his swollen ankle, but he did get it off. He had been a little scared at how bad it looked, but it was not discolored or anything that would indicate infection, he hoped. He would have to walk without the boot until it healed. 

This taken care of, he turned to the stream and jumped in, careful to land his weight on his good foot. He screeched loudly when he stood up, as the water was very cold, but that was only a small annoyance compared to washing the grayish mud from his body. He washed himself from head to toe, feeling the nasty, half-dried, clay-like mud being cleansed from his skin. He sniffed the water, then drank of it, and water had never tasted so good to him, except maybe after the desert. But it was a close second! 

The next thing Saber did was to take every single thing from his pack and wash it. There was nothing that could not take a wetting, including the thick parchment and bark he had been using as his journal, and he washed thes too, careful not to scrape off the writing. 

Saber laughed as he remembered the time his little bother Drii had discovered that the writing sticks didn;t run. He had been in the bathtub and decided to try writing on the smooth walls. It had not rinsed off as he'd expected. He'd gotten a good spanking for that and spent half the night washing it off with soap and a scrub brush. 

After he washed everything he had with him, Saber washed the jumpsuit and boots, and the pack itself, and laid everything out to dry. He could spend some time here while they dried in the sun. It was not particularly warm, certainly not warm enough to be traipsing around nude, but until the clothing dried he had little choice. 

The boy hunted down some breakfast as his belongings dried. He had run out of supplies in the swamp, and taken to hunting and cooking the mutated things. They had tasted bland, and made him a little sick as had the water, but again compared to starving, it was tolerable. 

He had never cared too much for rabbit, but today, it was a blessing. 

*** 

Meanwhile, Leyati's improvised army had been following Saber's trail. They had asked after him in the villages he'd stopped in, and ended up in Tisatria, the last one he had visited. Saber had made quite an impression there, and there were many that agreed to accompany Leyati and the others; among them the village elder who had spent time talking with the boy. As they journeyed, the improvised army all understood that they were not merely going after the boy to protect or hide him. They knew that this would be a confrontation with evil itself. It would be Kasana-Kai's rebellion all over again, except that she had had a few hundred warriors, travelling to the evil lord's own domain. Leyati's band was almost a thousand strong, with a few carts here and there with supplies and weapons and the like. They _wanted_ to end this They wanted to free their people once and for all and so it was not only Saber they chased, but the evil that _pursued _the boy as well. 

After Tisatria, however, they were a little unsure of where to go. There were no more villages that they knew of, and from here on out, they would have to rely on Leyati's vague knowledge of where Saber's village was. The boy had told Leyati what he had seen and passed on his way, and with Leyati's limited knowledge of the areas around him, he could make a vague guess. They headed southeast. 

*** 

Mumm-Ra, however... 

He and the Lunattacks had also questioned the villagers, but instead of the willing cooperation Leyati's people had gotten, they were met with either refusal to talk or incorrect information. They had terrorized the people, but got no better results. This made everyone nervous, including Mumm-Ra, for it seemed they had enough people here to be a threat to him. All because of one human boy. Mumm-Ra needed to put the little beast out of commission. Now. 

He and the Lunattacks however, had a disadvantage. While Saber could move and go and stop at his leisure, his pursuers had to keep returning to their own homes. Skytomb had to find ready supplies of the fuel that was once called Thundrillium, and the only place they knew about that still yielded the fuel was Darkside. Mumm-Ra had to keep returning to his pyramid to regenerate. 

But, based on the few times Mumm-Ra was able to glimpse the boy in his cauldron, and on what meager information some of the more timid or less scrupulous villagers had given them, they were able to more or less figure out what direction he was going in. And so, like Leyati's army, they began to close in. 

*** 

Saber traveled a good deal more quickly once out of the muddy swamp and back onto dry land. Over the weeks, the weather began again to warm up as it segued into spring, and Saber was soon able to exchange the jumpsuit for his more comfortable loincloth. This he put in his duffel, and hung the boots on the outside. Now clad in only his leather loincloth and the belt with the dagger on it, he continued once more the same way he had started out. 

According to his journal entries, which now took up a good deal of space in his pack, it was getting on the end of the first moon-time of spring when things began to feel familiar. Saber once again traveled in dense, clean forest, surrounded by the smells of rich dirt, of leaves, and wildflowers. After weeks of cold winds and barren ground, he once again traveled with the sun shining in dappled patterns through the leaves. As winter left the earth and spring took its place, Saber walked with the familiar, comforting sounds of forest animals by day and insects by night. He had to use a blanket at night, but otherwise, he was perfectly comfortable in his scant clothing. 

Saber's ankle had healed, and he no longer limped; he had been happy it was no worse than a sprain. His hair, which had grown considerably longer, was once again held back with a headband he had made, and although he did not know it, he had grown a couple of inches. 

He felt more healthy and fit than he ever had at home, and one day as he walked he thought about this and grinned. He thought also about Iyen and his father. Drett was the bravest man of the village, and Iyen was pretty brave too, Saber had to admit. But he did not think the older boy could possibly go up against the Lunattacks and come out alive. His father, Drett, maybe, and Saber's own father if he knew enough about them. But without any formal training, he had already surpassed the cocky older boy. 

It was not much later when he saw something that made him whoop with excitement, and jump in the air. It was the fortress! It was the cat fortress, the Cats' lair that he had explored on his way out here, where the Lunattacks had first attacked. And when he first realized that they were not immortal. It was a couple of days away; he was almost home! The boy increased his pace as much as he possibly could. Saber was approaching from behind this time, from the mountain the lair was set into. He thought about the Lunattacks, and for the first time it occurred to him that they had come in through the front! But how had they avoided the fire that the single eye shot? Saber could not, that was why he had had to climb the blasted mountain behind the fortress. 

Feeling both a great excitement at finally being so close to home, and also a sudden sadness at the realization that his journey was nearly over, Saber ran and jumped for the top of the fortress, as he had last time. To his utter surprise, he landed on his feet on the floor of the open topped building, that was covered in more leaves and dirt than last time. Before, he had jumped as far as he could and only barely latched onto the side. But this time he had leapt clear over it. This one single feat really brought home to him how strong he had gotten in then months he had been gone. 

A little shakily, and with the strong feeling of deja-vu, Saber again walked through the silent, deserted halls of the great fortress. At first taking a few wrong turns, he finally found the bedroom in the lower level that he had spent the night in that one night. When he walked in, his eyes happened on his pack and he almost started crying. He was not sure why. It was as if he was looking at an artifact from a long lost civilization. It made him feel sad. 

What had he brought initially, anyway? Saber did not even remember. He cast the pack he carried now, which was larger than the duffel he had taken from home, onto the ground, and picked up his old one. It was thick with dust, as were most the things in this forgotten place. Had he not come back, it would have just become another silent artifact from another time. 

He brushed it off and opened it up. There he saw his journal, and grinned as he read the pages. His father's dagger was in there, and although it was meant to be decorative, and it was very attractive, Saber thought his own was far more beautiful. Because it _was_ his own. He knew it, it was familiar to him, he had used it. He could handle it as if it had been his all his life. 

He smiled as he pulled out his brother's green hintrin, the blanket the boy had given to him to keep him safe. Although he had not had it with him for months, here he was alive. It must have done _something._ There was little else, only the few books he had brought and read here and there along the first month of his travels, and the waterskin. There was some food, now long spoiled, and he threw this and the cloth bag it was in away. 

Then he carefully put all his journal pages in order and put them in the bottom of his pack. The plain blanket he had been using went next, then his father's dagger and the waterskin he had taken from home. The things he would not use, he put on the bottom. He would use what he himself had gotten, as he had learned just how much more something was worth if one earned it on his own. The dagger Leyati had given him in exchange for his help those two weeks or so was tightly attached to his belt. 

Saber spent only one night in here, and saw that the blank square that he had watched the little disks on had been cracked somehow. He wondered if it still worked. Realizing he did still have the little disks in the small pocket of his loincloth, he put one in and grinned. It sparked the whole time, but the magical picture did work, maybe for the last time. Once more, he watched the strange cat warriors fight, and now he knew how they felt. He had fought the same adversaries, at least some of them. And if he had anything to say about it, his people would be too. No longer would they jump at the Lunattacks' every command. They'd been lords of Fourth Earth long enough; now it was time for his kind to be their _own_ people. And there was so much Saber wanted to show them. 

The boy did get a shock though, as he saw one of the allies the cat people fought alongside with. He had been drinking from his canteen, and almost choked on it, feeling gooseflesh erupt all up and down his arms and legs. He had seen this particular ally himself, frozen for eternity, in the palace in the snow. He watched the Snowknight, astride the cat he had seen sniffing a bowl of food in the kitchen, also frozen forever. Here, as he watched them when they were alive, it gave him chills. He had indeed been a courageous, honorable warrior. 

With a shiver, he took the disk out and put it back in his pocket. He had seen enough ghosts to last him a lifetime. He would give the little disks to Drii; he would like them. He could keep one for himself. 

Saber spent that night sketching all the places he had seen, as he had promised Drii. He had not thought about it for a very long time, but the images were still fresh in his young mind, and he had no trouble drawing them out in detail. Tomorrow he would begin the final phase of his adventure. With a mix of excitement, and nervousness, Saber slept on the sturdy bed that centuries ago a warrior named Panthro had once slept on himself. 

Part 29: A Warning 

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	29. A Warning

  
29 

A Warning 

Saber did want to stay longer at the Cats' Lair, as the place fascinated him to no end, and somehow he felt right here. He felt safe, even though he'd been abducted from here, but the place felt secure. He also felt a connection with the warriors that had denned there once before. Closer to them then even most of his own people. Still he only stayed a night, as he was very eager to get home. He was eager to see his family again, and sleep in his own bed. 

He was about as happy to see the cliff face he had climbed now, as he had been the first time. But it was easier this time. And he did notice that the eye did not shoot at him. It had been broken out. The Lunattacks must have done it, he thought. Well that was fine, then _he_ did not have to worry about it. 

It took him less effort this time to descend. His feet seeming to almost natrually seek out the footholds and handholds, the climb went faster, and he was able to make it in a day and camp out at the bottom. 

As he continued once more, having put on his armband and ankle skin-cover that he'd left at the Lair, he thought of the unicorn guardians. His extraordinary directional sense let him remember where they were, and he remembered how kind they had been to him. He wanted to see the once more before returning home. He would come back here, he knew that. He vowed he would come back here again, but it might be a while. And he wanted to give his thanks once more. 

It took several days, but he did seek out their comfortable abode in the forest. "Hello?" he called out. 

After a moment, a gentle voice answered, "Yes?" The woman poked her head from the privacy cover to look mildly on the boy. She smiled, not recognizing him at first. "Hello, traveler. Where are you headed?" 

Saber looked confused for a moment. Maybe they did not remember him. It had been a long time, almost a year! "Do you remember me?" he asked. 

The woman looked on the tan, healthy looking boy she saw before her, and her eyes widened in recognition. "Saber! Saber, yes, I do remember, the brave young adventurer from the east. Please come in!" 

Saber grinned and did so, saying hello to the woman's mate as he did. "I finally made it back. And I wanted to see you guys again and tell you all that's happened." 

The female smiled warmly at him as she sat back down. "We would love to hear your tales, young man. I nearly did not recognize you." 

"Yes," her mate agreed. "You have grown stronger, and taller, too. I believe you are an inch or so taller than when you first came through." Saber _was_ about that much taller, but that was not all that made him seem so. He _walked_ taller, more proud, confident, strong. 

The boy grinned widely. "Really? That's good! Everyone in my valley says I am too short." He laughed good-naturedly. 

"So did you find your animal fortress?" the female asked with a smile. 

"I did, and a whole lot more! And I found out what it's called, Cats' Lair, right? And the animal, it's a cat! I've never seen one before." 

They both smiled. "Yes, that's just right. The cataclysm made it impossible for their kind to live here." Her expression saddened. 

"Yeah..." Saber said, and made a face. "And I saw it." 

"'It'?" 

The boy nodded. "The weapon you told me about. It looks just like you described." Saber went through, in detail, his experience at the swamp, and the thing of metal he had found uncovered by a recent earthquake. 

Both the immortal guardians gasped. "You saw it?" the male said. "A thing of evil. I hope you did not stay." 

Saber shook his head. "No. It was weird there, creepy. It was too warm, and the air _tasted_ funny. I could _taste_ the air. And I twisted my ankle." He scowled. "On some old building I think that used to be there. There was a gargoyle head near it." 

"Oh! My boy, how did you get way over there? That is miles and miles from here, where Castle Plundaar used to be!" 

At Saber's inquiry, the two immortals told Saber what Castle Plundaar had been, and who it inhabitants had been. "Mutants?" he asked, and when they were described, his eyes lit up in recognition. "The beast warriors! I saw them! I saw cat people fighting them!" 

"Saw?" the male asked in surprise. 

Saber pulled out some of the disks he had used and showed them to his friends. "Yes, on these...they're like magic pictures, pictures that move. It saw the people that used to live in the cat fortress." 

They both smiled. "The ThunderCats," the female said. "They were great forces of good. but they were cats, and could not return here to help when evil took over once more." Then she gasped, looking suddenly alarmed. "Oh, how could I have forgotten?" 

Saber frowned, concerned. "What's wrong? Are you all right?" 

The male stood and shook his head. "Saber. Do you know who Mumm-Ra is?" 

Saber shook his head. 

"The Lunattacks?" 

Now those he knew! He frowned and said, "Yes. What about them?" 

The female shook her head angrily. "They are looking for you, young traveler. Mumm-Ra, he is their lord." 

Saber felt a momentary flash of fear from the Gathering Day he had gone on. Still believing the Lunattacks to be demons form hell itself, he had wet himself that day, thinking them to be the most horrible things he'd ever seen. And his father had said, "Imagine what their lord must be like." Such a thing sticks in a person's head! "Th-they are?" he asked. 

They both nodded, and the male put a hand on his shoulder. "They were here not three days ago, demanding to know what we knew of you. It was very little, and we told them so. They were terrorizing our unicorns, the poor creatures. Finally they set off to search again. I know you must be eager to get home, but won't you stay and hide for a while?" 

Saber was tempted. Boy, was he tempted. But now he wanted to get home more than ever. The Lunattacks knew where he lived! They took their metals and food every moon-time, didn't they? And he remembered the fat one that had toyed with him; he knew that one's name: Earthquake. He shook his head. "No...no, I can't. What if they hurt my family or my people? I can't let them do that looking for me." He bit his lip. 

The female nodded. "I admire your courage, little one," she said. "You have come a long way. Hurry, then, and maybe they will not find you. But be careful, and travel as fast as you can without exhausting yourself." 

Saber swallowed hard as he backed from the guardians' home. He almost ran into a curious unicorn as he did. "I'll be careful, I promise. And thanks again!" Giving the unicorn a quick pat, he turned and walked into the forest as quickly as he could. _Now _he had a reason to hurry home, and now he would be peering around every tree as he journeyed. 

For days he traveled as quickly as he could, until it was too dark to see. Then he slept uneasily, the noises that had so comforted him now making him jump when they woke him. Every minute he listened for signs of someone in the woods that should not be there. 

One of those days, as Spring more heavily endowed itself on the land, he had run into a pack of the Bolkins, the mutated, devastated creatures they had become when the cataclysm hit. This time he'd recognized the first one he saw and vaulted up into a tree. Just in time, too, this must be their territory, as he was in the same general area as last time. "Go away, you stupid things!" he growled in frustration. Every delay was making him tense. 

A chill ran down his back as he recognized, actually _recognized_ the leader of the Bolkins' pack. He saw the hateful eyes, and snarl, he recognized its matted mane of wool and its filthy snout, and he could see that the semi-sentient thing recognized_ him_, too. It was not a pleasant memory for either of them. 

They were more patient this time. Saber had to spend the whole night in the blasted tree before they left. When he was sure they were gone, he beat it out of their territory. 

Saber checked the date on his journal that night. He blinked in surprise as he realized what day it was. It was his birthday. It was well into the second moon-time of spring now; his birthday was the thirteenth day of it. The realization both made him smile and made him sad. Sad because he realized just how much time he had been away from his people. He had expected a journey of a couple of weeks, and that had turned out to be a year. 

_It is my birthday_, he wrote in his journal. _I don't know whether to feel sad or happy...I feel both. Sad because everyone will be a year older. Drii...Drii's birthday was in the fall, near the day of Hallows Night. He is six now. I feel happy, because I'm older now, not such a child... But even that makes me feel a little sad. I think after all that's happened, I want to be a child. And I am sad my journey is ending._

_And now I have to worry about my family. The Lunataks. I am not sure how that is spelled, and do not care They are looking for me. If they can't find me, would they go so low as to threaten innocent people? I know they would. I've seen it. I've felt it. I was innocent, causing no harm, and they put me through Hell. I hope that they give up their search. I am not even sure why they want me. I've done no harm... Well little harm._

_I will have to travel as quickly as I can. I've been eating what I hunt now, and that takes time. I eat a lot of fruits and berries, as I don't have to hunt them down and skin them. My stomach has not protested, however. I've had to eat or drink too many disgusting things for it to be picky. And so I eat fruits. I hope that it will not be too late when I get there._

Putting the bark-parchment away, Saber slept for the night. 

In the couple of hours before down, he was awakened by a noise. A familiar noise. A noise he had hoped never to hear again in his life. The boy jumped to his feet, craning his neck and straining his eyes to peer into the darkness. _Had _he heard it? Or was it only a dream? His human eyes squinted, peering into the star-studded sky for what he had thought he heard: the faint revving sound of the fortress the Lunattacks called Skytomb. 

Such a fitting name. 

After a few moments, not seeing anything, Saber felt he had imagined it. But he was spooked. It was only an hour or so until dawn, he would start early tonight. Saber picked up his pack and shouldered it. 

Seconds after he donned his pack, hee screamed in startlement as a hand grabbed him from behind. He heard a curse in a voice he recognized. It was that female with the red eyes! The eyes that could see through things! 

With a growl of part fear, part aggression, Saber grabbed his dagger from its sheath and whirled around, lashing at his attacker. 

Infra saw it coming and was able to dodge it, but she'd had to let go of the boy to do it. "I found him!" she yelled loudly, and now Saber could hear others looking around the woods. He remembered one that could hear anything, and another with the red eyes. 

Saber took off running, after decking her in the face as she looked back to yell. Caught of balance, Infra sprawled on the ground as Saber sprinted into the trees. "He went that way!" Infra pointed. Chilldon was up in the Icerunner, and now he turned on his lights. 

Saber ran through the trees, dodging the lights, weaving in and out of the trees. He was scared now that he would not get out of here alive, and he being so close to home. But still he did not let it stop him from thinking clearly. He still ran, trying to think of some way to lose them. 

And as the fugitive ran, all throughout the woods, the Lunattacks searched. And now, just returning from an intense rest period in his sarcophagus, Mumm-Ra hovered above the trees, searching for the boy that had caused him so much trouble without even knowing it. 

Part 30: Battle 

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	30. Battle

  
30 

Battle 

Saber ran. He had shed his pack along the way, casting it beneath some bushes and lightening his weight by a great deal. Now that he was without the weight he had gotten so used to, it seemed like he flew through the trees. 

All around him were the shouts and the direction calling of his pursuers. "Infra! He's to your left, get him, get him!" Saber couldn't tell which one it was, but he thought it was the short, fat one. 

WHAM! No, _he_ was right in front of him! Saber cried out in alarm as the rounded Lunattack slammed into the ground directly before him, and he reversed direction hastily. He ran as fast as he could, again dodging through trees and under bushes. He yelped as an energy blast blew past his side, and then watched in amazement as a bush tore itself out of the ground and started floating in the air! Had the energy done that? 

Saber looked back to see that the round one, Earthquake, was pointing the big gun at him. He dodged to the left, and it went past, hitting one of the others that had been sneaking up on him The boy ducked in reflex when he saw how close the other was; it was the blue skinned one. He ran once more as Chilldon floated up in the air. "Earthquake!!" he hollered angrily. 

Earthquake winced and hanged the setting of his gravity carbine to let Chilldon down. 

Oh gods, Saber thought. Don't let me die here, not now so close to home! He looked up to see lightning rip through the sky, even though there were no clouds., And the lightning was red as fire, as if the gods themselves had decided to interfere. 

He was not far off. Above the trees, Mumm-Ra scanned the forest for his young quarry, casting his electric energy down when he caught a glimpse of him. Ohhh, yes, he wanted this one's head on a pole in his pyramid. 

Below, Saber had run straight into Sounder, who grabbed him. Saber was getting sick of this one, he could move without making a sound! And his enhanced hearing had led him straight to the boy. He grabbed him with quick reflexes. "I got him!" he called to his comrades. 

But Saber was not going to cooperate. The boy whirled around and decked the taller being in the face. Sounder yelped and staggered back, but managed to keep his grip on the boy. He scowled darkly and punched him back, sending the boy's head backwards. But Saber had grown much stronger since they last met, and retaliated immediately. He knew little of fighting, although he had met a warrior in one of the villages who taught him a few moves. Saber had not remembered most of them, but he was able to recall one he particularly liked: 

Twisting around in Sounder's grip, his back was now to the other's front. He crouched, and with a sudden pull, pulled the Lunattack over. Then he quickly straightened his legs and pulled the arm that held him pinned. 

The technique was supposed to slam the one behind on the ground, but it did not quite work out that way. Saber, untrained as he was, lost his balance and fell to the ground along with his enemy, who sprawled on the dirt next to him. But Sounder had been taken by surprise; Saber had not. He got up quickly and made yet another turn into the thick woods. 

Sounder spat a quiet curse as Infra and her brother came running up. "I lost the little bastard," Sounder said in his intensely quiet voice. "But I'll get him again. Go on, find him!" 

The others nodded and dispersed once more. 

By a combination of good luck and quick thinking, Saber was getting farther and farther from the most of the Lunattacks. his adversaries were spreading farther and farther out in an effort to find him. The scanners up in Skytomb helped, but Saber was a wily little kid. He found animal dens and little caves of thorn bushes, and other nooks and crannies to hide in, in the dense woods. 

Still, they nearly caught him more than once. 

Chilldon had broken off from the rest of the group. He, more than any of them, had a score to settle. 

Luck would have it that Saber ran right into him rounding a tight grove of trees. He yelled in startlement, and fought when Chilldon grabbed him. "Let me GO!" he yelled, kicking at his groin. 

Chilldon growled and blocked with his knee. "Oh no you don't, you little shitbag!" he drew in a breath to ice the kid. 

Saber saw what he was doing, and his eyes widened. With a sudden lurch, he freed his right hand, which whipped down to his belt to retrieve his dagger. He unsheathed it, swiping at his adversary's face. 

The Lunattack jerked his head back to avoid the blow, but took a shallow cut to the chest. It was nothing fatal, but made his ice attack go askew, and his hand to let go off the human. 

The boy took the opportunity to back off, and jumped out of the way, as the angry Lunattack shot another blast of ice at him. Seeing that he would not be able to outrun the Lunattack without being frozen, a prospect that scared him a great deal, he instead ran _at_ him. 

The surprised Chilldon had no time to ice him again as the boy tackled him. They both fell to the dirt, grappling, each with a different aim. Both wanted to hurt the other, but Chilldon wanted to hurt him for revenge. Saber just wanted to hurt his opponent long enough to get him off his back. 

Chilldon, not wanting to chance icing himself, took his own dagger from his belt. Intending to give him a little of his own medicine, he thrust the weapon at the boy, who managed to move barely in time. He slashed with his own weapon, but the more experienced Lunattack rolled on the ground to avoid it. Deciding this was a fight of principle...someone had dared defy him was the issue...Chilldon did not ice the boy. He lunged at him with his dagger. 

Saber was not fast enough this time, and caught the blade in the shoulder as again they fell to the ground to fight. He screamed in pain as it plunged into his arm, and kicked at his adversary to get him off. He struck with his blade, but Chilldon caught his arm, leaving his own weapon in the boy's shoulder. Now he had his two hands to fight with, and one of the boy's was injured. 

His shoulder felt like fire, but Saber still used it. He tried to ignore the pain as he gripped the collar of Chilldon's vest wit that hand and attempted to fend him off with the other. Chilldon punched the boy in the face, stunning him for a second. while he was seemingly out, he sat up, still pinning the boy down, and prepared to ice him. 

But Saber was wilier than he had thought, and Chilldon had underestimated him. When the Lunattack paused to take his breath, Saber gathered his strength, and in one surge of energy, brought his knee up. Chilldon had not been ready, and this time took the blow to the groin. With a strangled outcry, his hands clutched the injured area, and Saber was able to shove him off of him and scramble away. While Chilldon tried to recover from the blow, Saber steeled himself and yanked the dagger from his shoulder. He shrieked again as the wound began to gush blood, and clutched it. had it been broken? 

Shooting a glance at Chilldon, who was trying to get up, Saber threw the Lunattack's dagger into the bushes, and grabbed his own. Shoving it hastily into his belt and again grabbing his shoulder, he staggered off into the woods. 

Chilldon tried to follow him, but he was feeling sick. With a voice that dripped hatred, he called in on his communicator to the others to alert them to where they were. 

Fortune was with Saber. As the other Lunattacks converged on the spot where Chilldon still recovered from the well-placed knee strike, he was able to finally escape his pursuers. They still had their sensors, but they were moving _away_ from him. He was safe for now. 

Safe from the Lunattacks, at least. One figure watched the boy stagger away from the scene. He watched him elude the Lunattacks, holding his shoulder tightly to try and stem the bleeding. He watched Saber move farther and farther away until he had to rest, and curled up under a tree. He used leaves to tightly bind his wound, and that was no mean feat with one hand. He watched him curl up to sleep. 

Mumm-Ra could easily have destroyed the boy now. He was defenseless, powerless against Mumm-Ra's dark magic. He could easily just swoop down and strike him dead with one stroke of power. 

But he did not. 

The ancient mage was not a being used to questioning himself. But he had before. He often asked himself why he never slipped into the Cats' Lair, the home of his greatest adversaries in centuries, and kill them in their sleep. He could have done it. But he never did. Why? It was not as if he had not done such a thing before. 

And now, why was he so reluctant to kill this child while he slept? It was not conscience: he had killed children before. Mumm-Ra growled and shook his head, and flew off to join the others. He had to rest soon, he had been too long from his sarcophagus. Leaving the Lunattacks to search in the wrong directions for the boy, he flew off to the sanctuary of his pyramid. 

*** 

Saber was two weeks from home. But he did not start off right away. In the morning, when he awoke, he took the bandage of leaves from his wound and looked at it. It was covered in dried blood, so he could not see it well but it hurt like nothing he'd ever felt, and he covered it back up. He coudl move his arm, and so maybe his arm was not broken. but it hurt like anyhting. 

The boy stood to get his bearings, and tried to remember where he's thrown his duffel, taking longer than he should have he finally found it. Why was his directional sense not working right? 

The young adventurer traveled throughout the day, trying to go fast. He'd had one run in with the enemy, he did not think he could survive another. But he could not walk fast. He couldn't get himself going, and his directional sense was fading in and out. What was wrong? He felt hot and cold at the same time, shivering even in the warm spring air. Was he sick again? 

Finally, he couldn't go any longer. He had been following the river now, the same river he had seen the black widow shark, the creature he had thought was a giant fish. He sat down and put his pack aside, intending to look at the wound on his shoulder. He removed the bandages and looked at it. It looked horrible, with the blood and the wound itself. He carefully washed it with the river water, keeping an eye out for a ripple that might mean the giant fish was near. But he saw none as he cleansed the wound. 

It hurt. Cleaning that wound hurt like hell, and he cried when he did it. But what he saw when he cleared the blood away scared him. The skin was red, kind of mottled looking, and swollen. He strained to remember what he had learned, or tried to learn, in his school. He struggled to recall his life lessons. Fever, swelling... infection. It could only mean the wound was infected, and if he remembered right, it could kill him. 

He did not have to struggle to recall what had to be _done_ about infection. He had never had one, but his little brother had cut himself badly once, and it became infected. The healer had had to cauterize it, burn the wound and kill off the infection that way. Although he had herbs and potions to dull the pain, poor Drii had still screamed when it was done. Saber didn't want to imagine how it would feel with no herbs to soothe the pain. 

Cauterizing, He had remembered the term, and it was hard to watch at the time. Drii had only been two, and Saber had felt sorry for him. But now... 

After a few long moments, Saber built a fire. It was difficult to say the least, but he did not mind. He was_ glad_ it took a long time to get it started. His shoulder ached unbearably by the time he was done, but he was still glad it took a long time. 

The healer had done something before he cauterized it, hadn't he? He'd had to cut the wound open and let it drain. He winced at the thought. 

Water...he had boiled water. He used his canteen again to boil it, as he had in the swamp, and cleaned the dagger off. Biting his lip, he took it, and in a burst of will cut a slash over the wound. He did it fast, or else he would not be able to get up the guts to do it. 

The boy cried out sharply in pain as the wound began to seep infected matter, and he made a face. Shaking, he applied pressure to help drain it, crying at the pain as he did. When all he saw was red blood, he hoped it was enough. 

Next? Cauterizing. 

Numbly, he stuck his dagger point into the fire and watched it. He bit his lip, thinking of what he was going to have to do before the infection went along too far and killed him. How long did it take? Could he hold out until he got home? It already hurt so much. Saber looked at the wound and again and decided he could not. It was bleeding now and badly. No, he would have to do it. 

After he could see the blade glowed with heat, he picked it up with a shaking hand and pulled it out of the fire. The hilt itself was almost too hot to touch, but it was bearable. The tip, now, was a different story. 

Saber started to cry silently as he held the blade. He was trying to work up the will to do what he had to, but he was not sure that he could do it. Finally, after several minutes, he tried. He gritted his teeth and pressed the hot blade to his shoulder. 

The skin hissed, and Saber yelped and dropped the dagger to the ground "I-I can;t do it, i can't..." he whimpered. But did he want to die? No... 

Swallowing hard, he put the dagger back in to heat. 

Several minutes later, he had it again in his hand, and before he could think about it too much, held it one more against the infected skin. The boy screamed and slammed back against the tree he sat under as a pain reflex, but he did not drop the blade. Crying openly now, he kept the hot metal to the infected area until it was seared, and he cold see the red skin had been burned. Finally he let it drop and panted heavily, coughing, sobbing openly now. If this did not work, he did not know what he would do. 

He had fallen asleep again in the middle of the day. When he woke again, it was night, and the cool wind dried the sweat on his body. The fever had broken. When he unbandaged his shoulder and looked at it, he saw the swelling had gone down, and it was no longer the unnatural red. The seared skin was red but it was a deep red from the burn. So it had worked. It just hurt like the hells. 

He bound it one more time and slept again. In the morning he would continue. 

He felt a great deal better the next morning, except for the pain. His direction sense was working again, and he no longer felt the fever. But still it hurt more than anything. 

Trying to be courageous and ignore the pain, he put the duffel on his other shoulder and started off once more, finally almost home. 

Part 31: Closing In 

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	31. Closing In

  
31 

Closing In 

The Lunattacks had gone back to Darkside one more time to refuel, and returned to the woods. The brat had almost three days head start now, and they had no idea where he was. He would not be home yet, although soon they would simply go there and catch him when he tried to get back into town. 

"I'll kill him," Chilldon growled. "That little bastard is going to die a slow death. I am going to make him _beg _me to kill him!" 

"Oh chill out," Infra said, then snickered at the unintentional pun. Chilldon growled at her and shot a burst of ice at the shorter Lunattack. Infra had expected it and jumped out of the way. "Hey watch it before I nail you with my disk." Her throwing disk could engulf him in fire more easily than he could freeze her, and he knew it. 

"That's easy for you to say, Infra," he spat. "That miserable punk hasn't humiliated you. First at the old Lair, and now in these woods. I want him dead." 

Serious now, Infra shook her head. "Well you'd better keep him alive if you catch him because Mumm-Ra wants to deal with him." Infra turned her attention to the sensors, using her own natural ability to enhance the scan. "I still can't find the little shit." 

Still on the issue of whether he would kill Saber or not, Chilldon made a disgusted sound. "Oh yeah? Well Mumm-Ra can kiss my—" But he was cut off by a powerful hand gripping his throat from behind, and all that came out was a strangled outcry of startlement. 

"Your what?" rumbled an angry voice. Chilldon twisted awkwardly around at the being that had lifted him so effortlessly into the air by the throat. Mumm-Ra had finished his rest and had gotten into Skytomb without setting off so much as a beeper. 

"Nothing, Mumm-Ra!" Chilldon choked out. "I was just talking." 

The ancient priest dropped Chilldon to the floor, where he fell and glared at the demon mage. "Watch what you talk about, Lunattack." This was all that Mumm-Ra said on the matter: he had other things to deal with. "Have you found him yet?" he asked. 

"No," Infra said disgustedly. "We haven't been able to locate him. But we know where his village is, it's not far from Darkside itself; he has to be headed there. There's nowhere else for him to go. We are going to set down halfway from where we last saw him and his village, and search again. And if we don't find him within a few days, we planned on going to his town and waiting for him." 

Mumm-Ra nodded silently as he stood in the shadows in the control room. He watched the female Lunattack go about her search, and watched Chilldon sulk. 

After a moment Sounder entered the control room, looking disgusted. "You do not want to know what Psychren's doing," he said with a grimace of disgust. "He's got one of the female slaves in his room—" 

"You're right," Infra said, cutting him off in her louder voice. "We don't want to know. 

Sounder said no more and acknowledged Mumm-Ra with a slight nod as he also stood and watched. There was no more to do at the moment. 

But after a while, Skytomb began to descend, with Chilldon at the weapons consoles, blasting away the trees. He was clearing enough land to land in for the large fortress. Once landed, the ranking Lunattacks; Chilldon, Infra, Earthquake, Psychren, Sounder, and Fintii exited the fortress. Fintii began barking out orders to spread out and look once more. They had the handheld scanners and sensors, and one of the lower ranking Lunattacks was manning the ones on Skytomb. They would give the search three days, and if they did not find him by then, they would attack his hometown. 

A little over a day behind Saber, and a few ahead of the Lunattacks, Leyati's band of fighters was closing in on the village themselves. They were approaching from a different angle than the Lunattacks, and had not yet crossed their path. They had followed the boy's trail, getting lost a few times along the way. Only luck and a strong tracking instinct that the reptile race possessed had allowed them to be able to follow their young friend. They had _seen_ the Lunattack fortress here and there, but Skytomb had not been interested in them, although they numbered nearly a thousand fighters. Marching in a long, long line through the woods, they had been just beyond the notice of the scanners on the massive fortress, and that was lucky. At any time, Skytomb could have blasted them. 

"Are you sure this is where your young friend said his village was?" a human woman named Kentri asked the old Nai. The humans and Nai had gotten used to the idea of each other, as like Leyati, most were unfamiliar with the other. 

Leyati nodded grimly. "He even described this whole area to me. This is the right place. We just have to keep going. If we hit the forbidden territory we've gone too far. He says that's where they make their gathering days." 

"Well all right," Kentri said reluctantly. Months of travel had made a good deal of them irritable, and many were having second thoughts here and there. A lot had asked why so many people were risking their lives and leaving their families undefended for one small human kid who had gotten in trouble with the demons? 

Leyati had answered this quietly when a group of them had asked this, and said that they were leaving. The old Nai said, "We don't risk ourselves for one boy, my friend. We risk ourselves for freedom. For too long we've let them terrorize us, let them take from us what's ours. If that one boy has a strong enough spirit to inspire so many to fight, and has the courage to stand alone if he has to... I can do nothing more than stand with him." 

That had quieted the more sullen of them, and made the others understand; no one had turned back that day. And now they neared the spot where most of them knew in their hearts they would finally stand. And they were ready. 

Saber had made good distance in this time, travelling faster than he had most of his journey. Now that he had encountered the ones that were after him, he was anxious to get home as fast as he could. A week after his fight with the icy Lunattack of Plundaar, Saber's injury had mostly healed. It had scabbed up horribly, and hurt a lot for a long time. But now it was finally healing, and Saber had been able to scrub the scab off with little pain. Had he lived centuries ago he probably would not have healed so quickly, but quicker healing was part of evolution. 

It was going to leave a nasty scar, he could see that. As after the attack from the Bolkins, he felt two ways about this. He almost did not like having a big scar on his body, a mark that was not supposed to be there, but on the other hand he thought it was cool. And this was a_ real _battle scar, gotten in a fight with an enemy. 

But even his fascination with the scar was forgotten as he neared his home. Soon he would find out the questions he had asked himself weeks ago: how would his parents react? How would his people react? He would soon find out. 

*** 

The Lunattacks did give their search a few days. But when they found nothing, not even a trace, Mumm-Ra finally ordered them to go straight to his home, and terrorize the villagers until they gave the boy up. And if he was not there yet, they would wait for him. The Lunattacks, weary of searching, were more than happy to comply. They were itching for some violence. 

Skytomb flew over the trees, Mumm-Ra hovering close-by. "What the hell is that?" Chilldon asked, pointing to a strange readout on the scanners. 

"Beats me," Infra said, and tuned the signal in. Then he laughed in amazement. "Berbils!" she exclaimed. 

"That brat did mention them, didn't he? I guess he was right." Chilldon got a nasty grin on his face. "I've always wanted to strafe a Berbil village...heard about them, but I've never actually seen one. What do You say?" 

Infra laughed. "I say you get your personal Icerunner, and I'll take the larger one, and let's go!" A few hours shouldn't make any difference in a search of days. She got Fintii's approval for the joyride, and a group of the Lunattacks ran for the hangar. 

Down below, Robearbill was outside picking the tainted candifruit from the vines within the village when he heard it. Looking up to see a fortress that his run-down, malfunctioning memory banks knew well, he could only stare in shock. As from it two vehicles, a High-grav Lunattack, and a jet pack carrying Infra's little brother emerged from it and began firing at one of the weed-ridden, overgrown crops, he still could only stare. 

"This is fun!" Infra's brother laughed as he zoomed by his sister, piloting the larger model Icerunner. He activated the lasers on his jetpack and blasted three rows of candifruit in the fields, firing at the Berbils that worked there as they had every day for thousands of years. "What the hell, they're only standing there..." 

The others had moved onto the town, and were setting the village on fire. Huts that had been burned down and rebuilt too many times to count were again blasted to the ground, and Berbils were destroyed as they strafed the place. But unlike the playacted attack Saber had witnessed all those months ago, the Berbils did not race around in a panick as they would have in the days of Third Earth. They only stood there, gaping. 

Of course the Berbils did nothing. Now that there was a _real _attack after so many centuries, they no longer knew what to do. The basic, primal instinct of their few biological parts had long since ceased to work right, and everything was not preprogrammed, rehearsed from some memory of an attack hundreds of years ago. And so they could only stare in shock as their village was destroyed. 

"And this is just a dress rehearsal!" Chilldon called gleefully as he blasted one of the bear people to smithereens. A bluieish gray colored one was torn apart by his laser fire. "I needed this! Next stop, that miserable little shit's town!" 

Finally they stopped their attack, leaving the forgotten little town smoking, in ruins. After so many months of frustration, this was just what they had needed to warm up for the real thing, yet to come. 

Part 32: Journey's End 

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	32. Journey's End

  
32 

Journey's End 

"It's been a year," Fegreth said. He was looking at a photograph of Saber that had been taken in town at the photographer's shop a few years before. 

His mate was in the kitchen trying to unclog the drain. It had clogged three times already that week. "A year for what?" she asked. 

Fegreth sighed and set the photo down. "A year since Saber first left the Valley." He entered the kitchen and put an arm around his mate. "And I punished him for it. Dannika...what if that's why he left the second time? What if he was angry, and did it in rebellion? I could not bear it if I were the reason my son is dead." 

Dannika shook her head and embraced her husband. "No, Fegreth, he was not the kind of boy, you know that. He always had the spirit in him to explore. There have been others. He just could not stay in one place. It was no one's fault." 

"He's_ not_ dead," came a voice from the doorway. Both adults looked up to see their son, their younger son, standing in the doorway. He was clutching a soft stuffed canine that he had been sleeping with this whole time. 

Drii's parents both hastily dried their eyes, not wanting to cry in front of the child and upset him more. Fegreth lifted him up. "You must face it, little one," he said gently, his voice kind. "We both miss Saber too. But we must realize that he is gone." 

Drii sniffed and wiped his own eyes, pulling away from his father. "He's_ not _dead!" he insisted. "Saber wouldn't ever die, he promised! He _swore_ it!" 

The two adults looked at each other, and as Fegreth set him down, the boy's mother knelt to speak to him. "Drii, he would never leave us on purpose. We know that. But sometimes things happen that we cannot do anything about. Some things are just more powerful than Erthrins." She drew the boy into her arms as he started to cry. 

"I want Saber back," he sniffed as his mother held him. 

"So do I, little one," she replied. "So do I." 

She might have held her child one for a long time, had the interaction not been interrupted by a great crashing sound outside of their home, and some yelling. With a frown, Fegreth grabbed his sword and ran outside, actually happy to have the interruption. Dannika stood and followed her husband, Drii in tow, as he left the house. She found him staring in shock at what was outside. 

The woman's eyes became as wide as her husband's did as she watched. What looked to her like a great beast bird, with razor sharp wings, flew down the streets, shooting fire from its eyes at the villagers than scattered from it. It shot at buildings, setting some afire, shot at the Erthrins, downing some of them. "My gods, Fegreth," Dannika whispered in horror. "Fegreth, what _is_ it?" 

Fegreth's face was pale. What everyone hoped would never happen had happened. The demons of the rocklands had come into the village and were exacting their wrath on the people. "It's a demon, Dannika," he whispered. 

Drii was staring at the Icerunner, his jaw open, his eyes as wide and round as plates. He stared in equal parts abject terror and complete fascination at the beast of metal. This was one of the demons his brother had described to him that one fateful day! 

Finally, Fegreth broke out of his shock. "Dannika, get Drii inside!" He ran out into the street. But he got no further than a few dozen feet before Hantrik, a warrior he knew from the village, grabbed him by the shoulders. His whole left side had been seared, as if from a hot iron in the blacksmith's shop. His face bled, looking like it had been mauled by a wolf or some other creature. "This is your doing!" he screamed, shaking the other man. It was not a strong gesture, as he was staggering, using Fegreth more for support than he was shaking him. 

Fegreth frowned in amazement. "What?? This is my fault? What have I done?" 

"Your son brought this all down on us, Fegreth! If you'd kept him here! The demons are destroying our village looking for him!" Hantrik screamed deliriously while his fellow warrior stared. 

"Drii?" 

"NO! Saber! Saber, who left the valley, who brought the wrath of the rocklands on us! Your boy has damned us!" 

"Now just a second," Fegreth said, his voice shaking. "My son is dead! You'll not be speaking ill of him!" 

A moment later, one of the female warriors came up and helped Hantrik away. "They're looking for him," she spat. "Damn you, Fegreth. You tell those demons that he is dead. YOU go and face their wrath!" 

Feeling numb, Fegreth looked up at the metal bird, which was looking more to him now like a strange sort of vehicle that flew, than a living thing. He could now see that a red eyed demon flew it. His wife, having told her child to stay inside if he did not want to get the thrashing of his life, had joined her husband outside, and saw the damage the demons were doing. She saw another such vehicle-beast like the red-eyed one was not driving. "Th-they say they are looking for Saber..." Fegreth told her. 

Dannika gasped. "Do they think it his fault?" 

Fegreth nodded numbly. "Yes. If we survive they will probably haul it up in front of the village's council. If they think us responsible for this, I will be stripped of my warrior title and privileges. You will probably not be allowed to trade in the town...at the very least." 

His wife nodded grimly. "I know how the council works. At the worst they will exile us beyond the Western Boarder, where Saber went." 

Fegreth's expression hardened. "Hey!" he screamed, waving his weapon at the demon. What he was doing was unspeakable, and even though he head recovered fully from the injuries Earthquake had inflicted on him when he attacked, he still remembered it well. But now his family and his people were at stake here. "You are looking for me, stop shooting your fire at the villagers! It is me you want!" 

"It is _us_ you want" his wife corrected. She firmly took her husband's hand, vowing to stand by him. 

He looked at her seriously. "If something happens to me, Drii needs to be taken care of." 

She nodded grimly. "If something happens to you, we will be exiled anyway and likely die. Maybe I can prevent that." 

He thought a moment and then looked back to the demon, who had stopped his flying vehicle to glare at him with his unnatural eyes. "Go to the village square, mortal!" he commanded, and flew off. 

Fegreth narrowed his eyes and began to run. "Come on, Dannika!" He and his wife ran for the village square; where, he was sure, their fate would be decided one way or another. 

Unseen by either of them, a terrified Drii had snuck from the house and run after them, clutching his stuffed toy still, running as fast as his legs would carry him. 

"Infra." 

Infra frowned at her brother's voice, and picked up the radio. "What?" 

"I found the brat's parents, and am leading them to the town square!" 

Infra laughed. "Good work, punk. We'll be there!" Infra got on the radio to everyone else and told them where to meet. Every available vehicle had scoured the valley, looking for the family of the boy, and maybe for the boy himself. Now they would find out if the brat was here and being hidden, or just had not yet arrived. Now they all converged on the town square, Skytomb not far behind. Aboard Skytomb, Mumm-Ra waited. 

Meanwhile, Saber had whooped in delight as he saw the beginnings of overgrown crops, and ran for the village he knew lay ahead. But something was wrong; he smelled smoke. The boy shook his head, dismissing it. The Berbils were probably just having one of their phantom attacks, torching their own homes because they thought they were being attacked. 

As he walked through the village, he thought his suspicion had just been confirmed. Buildings burned, and the road had been torn up by some kind of weapons, like those on the Lunattacks' strange vehicles. But wait a minute. The Berbils had nothing that could make that kind of mark, did they? 

With a sense of anxiety, Saber ran through the streets, searching for someone. This was wrong too, last time the Berbils had raced around, seemingly at random, although the pattern was written out in their memories. But no one moved. Here and there he did see some of the strange little people, standing still, as if frozen in place. "Robearbill!" Finally! 

Saber ran up to the Berbil he had befriended so long ago, and he still stood in the same place, staring up at the sky. "Robearbill, do you remember me? it's me, Saber!" 

Now that there was something here to react to, Robearbill finally turned his head from the sky. His head made a thin squeaking sounds as he did, like a rusty hinge. "Saber!" he exclaimed, his mechanical, droning voice sounding dazed. "My, how you've grown." 

Saber shook his head at the incoherancy. "Robearbill," he said, putting his hands on the Berbil's shoulder. "Robearbill, what happened here?" 

"An-an-an aattack...there was an attaa-a-a-ack..." The Berbil said, sounding so devastatingly shocked that such a thing had happened. It had been so many hundreds of years... 

Saber frowned. "A real one? You didn't do this yourselves?" Realizing that the Berbil would not know what he meant, since he thought the others _were_ real attacks, he changed his tactics. "Who? Who attacked you, Robearbill?" 

"The Lunattacks!" Robearbill cried. Some of the other Berbils were beginning to come out of their dazes as he said it. "It was the Lunattacks, ThunderCats!" Robearbill's programming was slowly rewriting itself. There had been an _outside_ attack! Now they could go back to reacting the way they did. There was an attack, they must call for the ThunderCats to save them. The ThunderCats would come! 

Saber now knew who the ThunderCats had been, and somehow knew what Robearbill was thinking. He watched, feeling a deep sadness as the Berbil ran off, presumably to call for help to these ThunderCats. And they would never come. Would they think they had been betrayed? Maybe. Or maybe their mechanical minds were just so far gone that they would create some other kind of reality to fill the gaps. 

The boy shook his head, feeling much the same way as he had the first time he had come here: like he had stepped from the world he knew into a different time, to a place that existed _outside_ of time...yes. A world of spirits. Suddenly he wanted to be as far away from the Berbils as he could. 

Saber began to run, but then he stopped short. Smoke. He was still seeing smoke, and it was not coming from the Berbils' torched huts. It was coming from his village, his home. 

Now feeling an intense fear, fear for his people's and his family's safety, Saber did run, ran as fast as he could. 

Part 33: Interrogation 

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	33. Interrogation

  
33 

Interrogation 

"What?" Nenda stood up abruptly when the young man come into his home, not even knocking. It must be something urgent indeed. And it had been. 

"The Western village is under attack.!" 

"Attacked? By whom?" The elderly Bruter, whose people had once been called Brutemen, frowned. 

Gret swallowed hard. "The demons, Nenda. They are looking for Saber." 

The village chief raised his eyebrows. "Saber? Then he is alive!" He laughed aloud. "I knew that young scamp would make it. He has the heart of a wolf, that one." Then his expression became serious. "But we must help them out. Gather a group of warriors to come with me, but leave enough to defend our own people as well." 

The young Bruter nodded and ran off to gather some of the fighters. As Nenda grabbed his own weapon, a slim but sturdy battle ax, he executed a few manuevers outside his home. His mate watched him, concern on her face. "You've not gone to battle for years, Nenda, are you sure you are able?" 

The village chief whipped the ax to the left and sliced down a young tree that had been growing outside his home. He stood straight again and smiled at his wife. "Yes," he said, kiissing her brow. "And young Saber is a friend. I must help him." 

She nodded. "I know... I know. But please, be careful." 

Nenda nodded. "I will. I prosmise." 

At that moment, Gret came back with a small group of fighters, and quickly they headed for the western end of their valley. 

*** 

In Saber's village, his parents had reached the town square, where most of the epople were gathered. There were angry cries as they approached from some, sympathetic looks from others, and from yet others, cold glares. They were decent people but for so many years, they had accepted the tyranny, and thought the Lunattacks demons, creatures from Hell itself, and now they had come to exact their wrath on the village. they natually needed something that they *could* fight to lay their blame on. And Saber's parents were the unfortunate scapegoats. 

Dannika was out of breath by the time her and her husband Fegreth reached the town square. As they ran, they saw scenes of destruction, burning buildings that the fire brigade fought, although they could not possibly get to them all in time. The Lunattacks had done a lot of damage looking for the two humans. People had been injured, some fatally. The healer was as busy as the fire brigade. 

A frightening sight awaited the couple as they reached the town square: a dozen or so Lunattacks waited, looking very grim, some in the vehicles, some on the ground. Above loomed the frightening sight of Skytomb, something none of the villagers had ever seen up close, and that most had never seen at all. Many of the humans, even grown men, cowered from the massive fortress. 

Now walking cautiously, Fegreth and Dannika slowly ascended the five steps that led up to the raised wooden platform, used for events, shows, elders' speeches and the like. It would now be an arena of sorts. 

Both were clearly terrified, but both just as clearly exhibited the courage their elder son had discovered. "I am here," Fegreth said in a carefully controlled voice. "What is it you want of me?" 

"We want your first born, mortal!" Psychren called down with a nasty grin. A few of the Lunattacks laughed at the joke; they _did_ want his first born. Fegreth narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He kept his gaze on Fintii. 

He had never seen her before, but as soon as she opened her mouth, he knew that he had heard her before. Hers was the voice like the banshee they all heard giving its orders to the other demons on Gathering Day. If such a tiny creature could rule over so many, there must be something terrible in her powers. "He's right, human," Fintii said, her own bulging eyes narrowed. "Where is he?" 

Fegreth was getting angry, and took a hesitant step forward, keeping a safe distance between her and her mount. "I have told you," he growled. "My son is dead. Your...your demons said as much." His voice shook a moment as he recalled the awful vision he'd had that day, of these demonic being toying with his child until they killed him. 

Fintii rolled her eyes and gave Chilldon a look. He gave her an innocent look back. However, she did not concede the fact that her "demon" had said the boy was dead. No, that would mean treating him as an equal. And that could not happen. He was to be handled as an inferior being, to keep them in line. "You dare to contrtadict your lords, you worthless human!" she shrieked, making more than one wince at the sound, some of them Lunattacks. Sounder shook his head and rubbed an ear. "Hand him over, human!" Havok stepped forward at a light tap of Fintii's riding crop and growled menacingly. "Or Havok will crush you quite literally in his hands," she added in a quiet voice. 

Fegreth looked at what he had thought to be a mute demon, a demon beast with no intelligence, and his eyes widened when the beast spoke: 

"Crush mortal, crush mortal!" Apparently, it possessed more intelligence than a mere dumb beast. 

The warrior swallowed hard. "I swear, my son is not here! I've not seen him in almost a year. If he is not dead, then I do not know what's become of him!" Fegreth wanted so badly to hope Saber might still be alive. But he was so sure that he was not, that he could not allow himself that hope, only to have it dashed. 

The villagers around the stage watched this scene with different emotions. Some felt hate, rage at the demons, some felt anger and resentment at Fegreth, as it had been his son to bring this on the village. "If you've got him, give him up!" one of the farmers called, raising a fist. His ten year old twin daughters hid behind him. 

There were a few murmurs of agreement with the frightened, angry man's cry. Saber's people were not cruel, they were not evil. But they were frightened, confronted with something they had never seen before. And they would do anything, even give up a child to be killed by "demons" to make it stop. 

"He's not HERE!" Fegreth roared in frustration. 

Dannika turned on the farmer, noting he had his own children with him. "Had it been_ your_ children that strayed, would you so easily demand that?" she growled down at him from the platform. 

The farmer huffed, but said no more. He wanted to blame Saber, but he looked to his own little ones; and no, he would not give them up for anything. Others, however, did not share the sentiment. 

"He's a rogue! He's responsible for death, Dannika! People have died!" This was called by an old woman that looked after a fish stand in the market. 

"That's not his fault!" 

"Then whose fault is it?" a man called out. 

Dannika clenched her fists, almost ready to cry. How could things have gone so wrong with their lives? Their quiet little village had never seen such an uproar in her lifetime. There had not even been war with the lowlanders for a few decades! 

"ENOUGH!" Fintii shrieked, easily heard over all of the other voices. The town square was silent, except for an occasional cry of pain from someone wounded there or down one of the streets. "Havok, grab him!" 

Moving faster than Fegreth could have imagined a beast of such girth to move, Havok lunged for him, grabbing him by both arms. The human growled in fear and tried to break free, but the beast easily held him, held him as if he were no more than a child himself. 

Fintii grinned nastily down at the human. "I don't think that you are telling the truth, human," she said. Infra had landed and she and Psychren had stepped out onto the stage. Sounder took the larger Icerunner back up to keep a lookout, not to mention an ear out. Infra reached over and slid Fegreth's blade from its scabbard, while Havok made sure the human did nothing about it. She grinned and hurled it into the crowd, laughing as the all ducked or jumped back, many of them tripping and falling in their haste. The blade's hilt hit one of the nearby buildings and dropped to the ground. 

A group of five or so older children, the youngest thirteen, the eldest fifteen, watched the escalating scene nervously. The four boys, including Iyen, and the one girl carried metal blades in their hands for this day for the first time, as their instructor had said they may have to fight today. "All the poet's fault," the red haired boy muttered. Their instructor had been injured in the initial attack; the cadets did not know that he had died from the injuries. They watched intently, eyes darting to Drett, Iyen's father. He had been the one to get them organized after the normal instructor had been downed. 

"Now," Fintii continued. "We will see for sure whether you are lying or not. Havok, ask him where the brat is." 

Havok grinned ferally, his clumsy looking features twisting in a ghoulish imitation of childish glee. He punched Fegreth in the face, sending him sprawling on the wooden platform. Hauling him up by the throat, he spun the human around and grabbed him in a bear hug around the waist, and started to squeeze. "Where brat?" he demanded. "Where brat?" 

As his wife watched in horrified fascination, Fegreth tried to fight from the beast's increasingly uncomfortable grasp. It did as good as a mouse trying to fight the jaws of a wolf. The warrior began to feel fear as the pressure around his ribcage increased to the point of pain and kept tightening. "Better answer, human," Fintii said in a tone of cold authority. "Or you'll be half as thin as you used to be. And then he will start on your wife." 

Dannika swallowed hard but clenched her fists. "Like hell!!" 

Many gasped; it was unheard of to defy the demons, but she had done it. Psychren turned around and back-fisted her across the face, making her stagger with a sharp yelp. He reached for her, intent on making her pay for her defiance when Fintii stopped him. "No, Psychren. You can have her if this human does not cooperate." With a disgusted growl, Psychren shoved the shorter woman violently away from him putting his foot out so that she would fall off the edge of the stage. 

Dannika landed hard on the ground with a grunt and stayed a moment to catch her breath. She gave a grateful smile to the two villagers that were courageous enough to come forward and help her up. Silently she climbed back up, giving the tall Lunattack a wide berth. 

Fegreth gave a muffled groan of pain, clenching his teeth against outcry, as he felt something crack. Havok growled and flexed his muscles suddenly, injuring Fegreth further. "Where brat?!" he demanded once again, as Fintii looked down at her beast with a savage grin. 

"I - don't - KNOW!" Fegreth gasped. "He's not HERE!!" He choked back his cry once more as Havoc threw him to the ground and punched down at him, hitting him low in the side. This time he did cry out as a deep pain sank into his side. He thought his pelvic bone might have been cracked. The breath knocked out of him, he gasped in air as he struggled to get control of himself. Havok was rearing his fist back for another strike that most likely would have paralyzed the human when he was stopped by his mistress's voice. 

"Hold it, Havok." She was looking up at the Icerunner, where Sounder was trying to get her attention. He finally landed and whispered something to her, and she raised an eyebrow. "I have a much better idea, human," she said, instructing her beast to back off, With a disappointed growl, he did. "You miserable mortals are so sentimental about your children, I don't think that you _would_ tell me if you were hiding the miserable human brat." She smiled as Fegreth struggled to stand up, and as his wife ran over to help him. 

She nodded to Psychren, who looked behind him at a small figure running for the platform. He laughed and jumped down as the figure let a screech of terror and changed course, but he was easily faster than the child and grabbed him by an arm, lifting him into the air. He shook his head as he brought his catch back up. 

"Drii!" Fegreth gasped, angry that his son had defied him and perhaps would get hurt for it, and fearful that he _would _ be hurt. 

Dannika also cried the child's name, and started forward. 

"Uh, uh, uh!" Psychren warned gleefully. He narrowed his eyes and favored the woman with a smile that would have struck fear into the hearts of warriors as he whipped his dagger from its sheath. He drew the blade up to the boy's throat, and Drii immediately ceased his frightened struggles. He knew what a sharp blade could do to a person. "Freeze, woman." 

There was a laugh from above, and Chilldon called, "Good idea! He swooped down in the Icerunner and blew a shaft of icy air at her. The woman had already stopped for fear of her son's safety, but now yelped in shock as her feet were iced to the wood. 

"Now," Fintii said, pointing to the frightened child in Psychren's grasp. She glared at Fegreth as the injured human had to fight to keep his balance. "Either you tell me where that older brat of yours is, or Psychren here is going to deprive you of your younger." 

Part 34: A Shocking Welcome 

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	34. A Shocking Welcome

  
34 

A Shocking Welcome 

A day before, Leyati and his band had finally reached the end of their own journey: the Berbil Village. A day east lay Saber's own home. 

"Is that it?" one of the humans had asked. She pointed to evidence of a tiny village ahead of them. 

Leyati shook his head and closed his eyes. "Hold on a minute," he said as he thought. "The boy said it was southeast, after a great animal fortress, and about a month due east of that. He also said there was a village of Berbils right before it, a day away." 

"Berbils? I didn't know they were real!" 

Leyati nodded. "Apparently they are. Y' ready?" 

The woman nodded, and Leyati raised the yellow flag, a signal to the army that they were ready to go. 

Despite his words along the whole journey, they had lost a good hundred and a half off of their numbers. But they still numbered 650 hundred strong, and Leyati had a feeling that it was plenty. 

Now it was a day later, and they were on the outskirts of Saber's village. Not one member of that improvised army went through the Berbils' village without getting a bad case of the chills. They felt as Saber had, that it was a place for ghosts. Things that should have been long dead and long gone still existed in a twisted form of reality. 

Now that they were where they needed to be, most were tense, ready for a battle. Many were warriors, many more were not. But all were tired of the tyranny that was Fourth Earth. And all were ready to fight. 

In the center of town, the townspeople watched fearfully to what would happen to the little boy Psychren had grabbed. 

"Tell you what, humans," Fintii said, her voice low. "I won't tear you apart. But if you don't tell me what I want to know, we'll just tear _him_ apart until you decide you can't stand listening to your child scream anymore." Fintii nodded to Psychren. 

Drii cried out, and then started sobbing hysterically as the Lunattack made a swift movement with the dagger and opened a deep gash along the boy's upper arm. He readjusted his grip to the boy's hair, holding it tightly so the child could not get too far away from him. 

Dannika shrieked herself, in fury, trying to rip the ice from the deck so she could lunge at her child's tormentor. "Leave him alone!" she screamed. "Coward! Leave him alone!" 

"My gods," Fegreth gasped, staggering forward himself. "Let him go, he's only a child!" He grunted as Havok grabbed his arm and jerked him back. 

"Then tell me where he IS!" Fintii was losing patience, and she was absolutely sure that the boy was in the village. 

Drii screamed again as Psychren cut him again, just beside the other one. "Better hurry before I run out of meat..." Holding the boy to him in a firm choke hold, making it difficult for him to breathe, the Lunattack switched his focus to the boy's bare tummy, slowly drawing his blade across it. 

Drii's body jerked away from it as he let a choked cry, and Fegreth himself felt tears come to his eyes. "I don't know, I swear I don't know anything!" he cried desperately. How could he make them understand? "Please, _please _stop hurting him, he's only a child, have you no mercy?! I _beg_ you, let him go!" 

Shaking his head, Psychren raised the dagger again... 

*** 

While this unfolded, Saber had reached the village, only to be greeted by a not-so-friendly neighbor. "You!" she gasped, then narrowed her eyes as she hauled off and slapped him across his face. Saber blinked in shock. Although the blow had not hurt him, it had surprised him a great deal. 

"What--??" 

"This is YOUR fault! They're looking for you, _you_ brought the demons down on us!!" the woman shrieked. 

"Yes," the woman's next door neighbor chimed in. "You had to leave didn't you, child? Now look what's happened, you brought the demons of the rocklands down on our heads! My husband has died because of you!!" 

Saber's mouth dropped open. Died? Old Hekti was dead? 

Mistaking his grief for fear, as they both expected of the normally timid (so they remembered) child, the first woman sneered. "That's right. Bring this here and then are too frightened to—" 

"Where are my parents?" Saber demanded, cutting the woman off. 

Not expecting him to have interrupted her, she scowled. "The town square, boy. They've probably executed them by now!" 

Saber's eyes widened, and then he narrowed them. Without another word to the two women, he took off at a fast run, headed for the village square. 

The women had expected him to run the _other_ way, or be frozen in fear. Seeing his newfound courage, it made them repent a little of their hard words as they watched him run. 

His former urgency doubled now, Saber ran as fast as he could for the center of town. Everything was so familiar to his eyes, and yet it seemed he ran through a stranger's home. 

As he neared his destination, he heard a scream, a sound of pain in a voice that sounded all too familiar. Drii! As he neared, he could begin to see what was going on. His parents were alive, restrained, and the tall Lunattack that had scared him nearly to fainting when he'd first seen him had a hold of his little brother, a dagger in his hand! And Drii was bleeding, bad! Saber's eyes widened in fury as he saw what the Lunattack had done to his little brother. He'd been cut now five times, and his mother was sobbing. Even his father was in tears, begging the Lunattacks to leave the child alone. "Drii..." he whispered. With no thought of what he would do when he got there, Saber sprinted for the platform. 

"Fintii!" Sounder cried, pointing at the approaching figure. 

Everyone turned to look at Saber as he cast his heavy pack to the side of the path. "Leave him alone!" he yelled, his fists clenched in fury. He leaped onto the stage as easily as if it were only an inch high. His stance wide and firm, he glared at the Lunattack the others called Psycho. "It's me you're looking for, let him go!" 

While Fegreth and Dannika stared in shock, one of the younger warriors in training leaned over and whispered, "Is that a cadet from another village?" 

"No..." the girl said. "At least I don't think so. Is it?" she asked Iyen. 

Iyen was also staring. He knew Saber better than the others, and he shook his head in wonder. "No..." he said. "It's the poet." 

"The poet?" the girl said, and turned her eyes to the stage once more. 

Saber was standing his ground as the Lunattacks on the stage closed in around him, cutting off any possible escape. Fintii nodded slightly to Psychren, and he snarled and shoved the little boy away from him. Drii was nearly unconscious, still sobbing, and choking more than breathing. Dannika leaned over as far as she could in her awkward position and lifted the child, heedless of the boy's blood that stained her clothing. Holding him tight, she desperately started to rip her dress into strips to bind his injuries. 

"Saber..." Fegreth whispered in awe. None that he had ever heard of had left the valley and come back alive and sane. "It _is_ true!" He shot a worried glance to his younger son as Havok shoved the warrior back onto the ground. He limped to his wife and helped her tend the child, but kept his eye on Saber. 

"So," Fintii growled, Havok stepping forward towards the human boy. Saber would have cringed from him six months ago, but not now. He knew what the beast could do, but also knew he could outrun it. He knew it could be injured. "You've come back to face us." 

"I didn't have any choice," Saber said, his eyes narrowed. "A coward was torturing my little brother." 

Psychren growled and lunged for Saber, but Saber had seen it and jumped back. This time he did back down, as the Lunattack still unnerved him something fierce. He drew the dagger that Leyati had given him as he kept his wary eyes on him. 

Psychren laughed. "A knife? That won't do you any good, brat. I have one too." His voice mocking, he showed Saber the dagger, tainted red from his brother's blood. To show the boy how this dagger worked, Psychren lunged at him. 

With a yelp, Saber drew his stomach in and barely managed to dodge the blade. He retreated to the other side of the stage. "Maybe it won't do much good, but it's better than being unarmed! Like my brother." The boy's eyes were wide with both fear and determination; his grip on the dagger tight enough that his knuckles stood out in white contrast to his tanned skin. 

"Stop!" Fintii commanded. Psychren gave her a baleful look. "Enough of this childish fighting." She turned to Saber, who returned the glare defiantly. Havok carried her over to the boy, shoving Fegreth over as he did. "Chilldon, get them out of my way!" Fintii ordered. From above, Chilldon sent a beam of energy at Saber's parents strong enough to both melt the ice and sent all three of them sprawling. Drii began to sob harder, but the Lunattacks simply shoved them off the platform. 

On the ground, a young adult knelt next to the child. "Let me look at him." It was the healer's apprentice, who had been helping her teacher while he worked on the wounded. Dannika gratefully turned the child over to her as her eyes joined everyone else's on the stage. 

Saber and Fintii faced each other center stage, both glaring hatefully at the other. To the left, Psychren stood ready for a signal that said he could pummel the punk, and above Chilldon was thinking the same way. Saber knew this too. "Now. We have a little problem, mortal," she said. 

Saber narrowed his eyes at the term. Yes, the "immortality." No wonder they insisted the gathering be done in dim light with so much confusion. They did not want the villagers to realize that as time went on, the "demons" changed and aged. "And what is that?" Saber asked, fighting to keep his voice steady. It still shook a little, but he was determined to not show any fear. 

Fintii gave him a malevolent look. "Watch your tongue, human, else I'll burn it out! Chilldon, show him what I mean!" 

Chilldon, happy to oblige, shot a searing beam of energy down at the boy. Not able to dodge quite in time, Saber yelped as it hit him in the side and knocked him asprawl. A collective gasp rose from the crowd as Saber hastily stood once more and gave Chilldon a dirty look. 

"Now," Fintii continued again. "We have a problem. Our lord seems to have run into resistance in the various villages of Third Earth. And so have WE! And it seems to be allll your fault." Fintii grinned wickedly. "Those towns have paid the price for their insolence, as they no longer exist." The tiny Lunattack was pleased at the expression of shock on the boy's face, and she could see he was trying to decide whether to believe it. It was not true, but how could he possibly know? And she _knew_ his pathetic fellow villagers would believe her. "And now it is your turn." 

Above, in Skytomb, Mumm-Ra watched these goings on via the monitor. He had reverted to mummy form to conserve energy. His strategy for the moment was to wait: simply to wait. His rule had gone undisputed for centuries, not counting short lived uprisings here and there, and his demands were given to the people through the Lunattacks. In return for their work, they were the lords of the entire planet, able to do whatever they pleased, and all would bow before them. But Mumm-Ra wished to remain the anonymous, unknown lord, his mystery evoking terror. He wanted to let the imaginations of the people of Fourth Earth make him into the terrifying demon they thought him to be, ten times more powerful than he actually was. 

However, depending on how things went down there, that might not be possible. And so he watched. 

Despite himself, Saber swallowed hard. He really did not want to die, and he did know what the Lunattacks were capable of. Of course, he also knew that much of what the little one was saying was for the benefit of the people of his village. "Killing me won't help anything," he bluffed. "There are other villages that know who you are. They know you aren't demons. They know- " 

Fintii's eyes widened in rage, and she screeched, cutting the boy off. Havok lunged for Saber and caught him around the waist and held him tight. Saber let a cry of alarm and fought only for a second before realizing he couldn't get free, and that he had better save his energy. "How DARE you, mortal!" Fintii shrieked. But she was nervous. She'd let the boy talk too long, and he'd said the damning words: "they know you aren't demons" "Havok, squeeze him!" The beast obediently flexed his muscles, driving his powerful arm into the small of Saber's back, and the boy grunted as the breath was knocked out of him. Pushing away from the beast with one hand, nearly doubling himself back over, he looked at the little Lunattack. 

"That's right, mortal," she growled. "You are going to die for your insolence. And then we are going to burn your village for your defiance!" 

Again there was a gasp, a sound of fear that rippled throughout the crowd. Fintii was glad to hear it. Saber made a weak sound of pain as Havok's grip tightened on him, as he didn't have the breath to say more. His dagger, he still had it in his hand, but it was trapped! "You think that you can just decide to ignore our demands, and we will let you walk away??" She was addressing the lot of them now. "Well, think again! We will level this town as an example to everyone else! And then---" 

She was interrupted by a startled yelp from her mount. In desperation, Saber had punched the beast with all his strength with his free hand, and although that did not make him let go it did make him loosen his grip enough so that Saber could get his hand out. With a quick movement, Saber slashed! 

There was a howl of pain from Havok, and this time he did drop the boy. Saber backed away gasping for air and coughing. A gasp went up from the crowd as Havok sat down and put one massive gorilla-like hand on the knife wound that everyone could see bled. 

"See?!" Saber gasped, coughing once more. "Look, look at him bleed!" 

"The boy's right," one of the women gasped. 

While Havok inspected his wound, Saber darted forward and took a swipe at Fintii herself. She let a screech that was physically painful as he hit his mark. "_See?_" Saber cried again, panting as his breath returned. His young bones had been flexible enough to take the squeezing, and had not been injured. A few more moments though... "They're mortal, just like us! They bleed! I've hurt that one too!" Saber pointed up at the Icerunner, and could hear a cry of rage from the Lunattack in it. 

"No demons..." one of the villagers said, awed. 

"Mortal," another one whispered. 

The Lunattacks were looking uncertain. Some looked only enraged, and Chilldon was one of them. He landed the Icerunner hastily and jumped out. Saber backed away from him, keeping a firm hold of the dagger he held. He also saw that Psychren and a now-furious Havok were advancing on him, not to mention a couple of others. The child gulped. He may very well have planted the seed of doubt that could make his village realize they had been tricked this whole time, to make them realize that people from east to west were rising up against the tyrant, and that the word would spread. But it also looked like he would die for it. Painfully. 

Above, a cowled head shook in disgust. "I see you Lunattacks have managed to fail once again," he rumbled, and called on his powers of magic, fueled by the demons that resided in his abode. Raising his hands, he cried out the incantation that he has used over and over for so many millennia that it was less a chant than a part of his soul. "Ancient Spirits of Evil..." 

Below, Saber had backed into the exact middle of the approaching circle of death, as his creative mind suddenly decided to call it. It was an unwelcome thought. He clutched his dagger and stood ready. If he was going to die, he was not going to go easily. If he had learned one thing on his long journey, it was that you had to fight for yourself. And you had to stand up for your beliefs, even to the death. 

Psychren spun his own blade in his hand, his face a chilling mixture of fury and hatred. "Prepare to feel pain, you little bastard." 

But just before they were on him, there was a shadow from above. And as the people stared in horror, a figure like a demon bat leaped from the sky to land it the middle of the stage, in front of the young traveler. "Enough play," it said, in a voice so ancient that it could not possibly be a being of nature. "It will end now. 

Saber, confronting the Lunatatcks 

Part 35: Final Clash 

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	35. Final Clash

  
35 

Final Clash 

Saber stared at the being that landed in front of him in fascination. This even took precedence over his fear at the moment. Saber had never met the demon face to face, but he knew what he was: he was the one that commanded the Lunattacks the boy had had so many problems with. He'd heard of the demon, who'd fought against an army of four hundred and won. At that thought, the fear kicked in, and he backed away a little bit. 

The creature before him was easily seven feet tall, and Saber had to look way up to look him in the eye. His eyes; they were an unnatural, hateful red, glowing with their own inner power. His grayish skin, looking almost like the pallor of a man who is vary sick, was heavily muscled, and the villagers could plainly see every ripple of power, as Mumm-Ra wore only a kilt, a cloak, and a few stray bandages in the way of clothing. The crowd was silent. "So," he said, his tone flat and unfriendly. "You are the one who's caused me so much trouble." He narrowed his eyes at the boy. "What's your name?" 

Saber gulped, but stood his ground. Willing his voice not to shake, he replied, "Saber." 

Mumm-Ra chuckled, his voice a cruel mockery of amusement. "Saber. A strong name for a weak boy." 

Saber narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists at the insult. "I am not weak," he said. 

The demon raised an eyebrow. "Maybe not. We will see before the day is out." He laughed again. "A brave human, to defy me. Surely you must know that you will die this day. You and your people here. You have caused me enough trouble." 

"It won't work," Saber repeated. "People don't want to do what you say anymore. A lot of towns say they're not going to, either. I know who you are, you battled Kasana-Kai, and you almost lost, too!" He had learned the woman's name along the way. 

Mumm-Ra growled at the boy. "Watch what you say, human," he warned. "She had an army of four hundred rallied to her. And still I triumphed. He took a step towards the boy, who backed up from him as he did. 

"Well m-maybe so. But still, you can't kill everyone on Fourth Earth. Pretty soon, everyone will know the Lunattacks aren't demons, that they are mortal. They'll know they can be killed. They'll know that you're the only one who can't, and by yourself, you'll never kill them all!" Saber's hands were balled into fists as he spoke. "You're a coward!" he accused. 

There was a collective expression of disbelief and fear as Saber said this last. His people were already terrified out of their wits, and watched the confrontation silently. But now, to hear this small boy tell a powerful demon he was a coward, it was unbelievable. 

In a soft, terrible voice, the demon replied: "You are terrified to the point of wetting yourself. You shake as you stand, and you call _me_ a coward?" 

"I know..." Saber said. There was no hiding his fear, it was clearly apparent on his face. It would have been foolish to deny it. "But I'm still confronting you! Y-you have power, and use it to hurt people weaker than you. How is that courageous? It's not! You step on people weaker than you, and that makes you a coward!!" 

Mumm-Ra growled, his eyes narrowing to slits. In one swift movement, even as the boy stumbled back away from him, he raised his hand to send a burst of red power at him. The electric current struck Saber on the chest, sending him sprawling backwards with a yelp of pain and surprise. Shaking his head, he got quickly back up. Now he had reason to be afraid: this being was more powerful than he thought, rememebering in a flash the red lightning he had seen days erlier in the sky. Again Mumm-Ra blasted his power at the boy, but Saber was ready for it and jumped from the way. The lightning struck Psychren instead, who had been right behind Saber. With a yell, he was knocked from the platform. Singed but uninjured for the moment, the furious Lunattack climbed back up onto the stage. 

Saber had dodged the blast, but as he landed from his jump, Mumm-Ra immediately fired again, and caught him. He screamed, a sound that was lost in the crackle of electricity, and his body tensed, absolutely still for a moment before he was knocked halfway across the platform. 

Mumm-Ra gave the kid time to stand once more before he sent his next barrage. "You see how futile it is to defy the mighty Mumm-Ra?" he demanded, casting his hateful gaze to the crowd. Many cowered, a few nodded their heads. 

Saber slowly got to his feet, coughing as he stood, and shaking his head of the momentary fog that had wrapped around his mind. He winced at a patch of seared flesh on his side and clenched his fists. The one who called himself Mumm-Ra did not fight fair! And now he faced his enemy unarmed, as his dagger had been knocked from his grasp. 

"So, you come back for more?" Mumm-Ra said. He had been about to blast the boy to smithereens when he stopped. "Admirable...or perhaps only foolish." He laughed. "You want so badly to be a warrior," he said, his voice unkind, ridiculing. The surprised look on the boy's face amused him further. "Yes, my servants have been listening to your people for a long time. You think yourself strong enough to fight me? Let's just find that out." 

While Saber watched, his eyes both fearful and determined, Mumm-Ra stepped back and extended his arm. This time though, the fingers were not pointed, but clenched, and after a moment, something began to materialize from it. There was a gasp of superstitious fright from the crowd below, and even Saber stared in amazement. Finally, the item solidified into a golden hilt with a snake's head at either end. And then, from the mouths of the serpents, two sleek silver-colored lines grew, and formed into wicked, barbed blades. Saber's eyes widened, not caring much for the look of it. "Better get your blade, Saber," he growled. "Unless you care to try and live up to your name." He paused a moment. "I suggest you use a longer one than your dagger there." he pointed to the hand weapon no the floor of the stage. 

"B-but...I don't know how to sword fight!" Saber protested, gaping at the demon in amazement. He expected Saber to fight a demon?! 

"That's too bad," Mumm-Ra said, his sorrowful voice dripping sarcasm. "Then I guess you will be made into shish-ke-bob!" Mumm-Ra lunged with his blade, however not at full speed. He wanted a fight; he did not want to skewer the boy right there Nnot yet at least. 

Saber did not know the term, but he got the general idea. As the demon lunged, he again leaped out of the way, stumbling and falling in his haste. He jumped back to his feet and backed up away from the demon towards the edge of the platform. 

Feeling something cold against his skin, he looked down. His father had come to the edge of the stage, and was handing his blade up, hilt first. "But-but I don't know how--" he began to say, but his father cut him off. 

"Take it, now!" He pointed up. As soon as his hand had touched the hilt, Mumm-Ra had lunged again, bringing his blade down towards the boy's head. 

The young traveler cried out in startlement and clutched the hilt of his father's sword, bringing it up to block the path of the other weapon. There was a jolt of his muscles as the weapons clashed, and he nearly lost his grip on it. When the others sparred, it always looked so light and graceful; he did not think that it would be such a hard strike. But he tightened his grip on it, and the Sword of Plundaar glanced away. Saber stumbled back. 

Mumm-Ra grinned ghoulishly. "Good. I was beginning to think I would be disappointed, child!" He lunged again, this time a straight lunge for his midsection. 

Saber spun to the side, each movement barely keeping him away from disaster. Off balance again, he made a downward chop of his father's sword, knocking the offending blade down, and again stumbled back away from his adversary. 

But as he did, he felt a pair of hands push against his back and shove him sharply forward. He fell hard to his hands and knees, dropping his blade, and turned angrily to see who had shoved him. It was Psychren, who had climbed back up onto the platform. his bare chest now bore a seared mark much like the one Saber had from the lightning, and he'd shoved Saber back into the makeshift arena when he'd gotten too close to the edge. 

The distraction had cost him. Saber had picked up his weapon and turned just in time to see the jagged blade slicing him from the side. With a cry of alarm, he tried to get his blade up in time, but he was too slow. A combination of inexperience and not being ready put his blade in a bad position, and his movement wasn't enough to take him out of the blade's path. He screeched as the sharp edge cut open a gash in his side, nicking his weapon hand as it did. 

Biting back further outcry, Saber knocked the Sword of Plundaar aside and staggered to the other side of the stage to catch his breath. He put one hand to his side as he watched the demon. 

"Remember what you've learned watching the cadets!" his father called from below. He had been shoved back again by the Lunattacks who were watching the fight. "Watch your opponent!" 

Ignoring the older man, Mumm-Ra allowed the boy to catch his breath. His face was twisted in a savage grin as he watched him, and saw he had taken an injury. But he was still standing! Admirable. He had not been fighting at near his possible speed or strength, as that would easily finish the boy. He wanted a fight, and a good one. He'd not had a battle to fight in so many years, he'd gotten lax and dormant. Indeed, what was the point of ruling a world if he never strayed out into it? 

The boy he now fought was no physical challenge, although better than he would have expected. He was not skilled, or as strong, but his will was more powerful than any he'd encountered in a long time. And it was this he battled. He would see just how long the boy would last. 

It was Saber this time who advanced. The wound was not life threatening, although it hurt. It was not even as serious as Chilldon's own mark on him, and the cut on his hand was nothing. Having caught his breath once more, Saber slowly walked towards the demon. So much taller than he, it must have looked like a puppy trying to ambush a dragon, but still he came forward. 

Mumm-Ra strode to meet the advance, and was surprised when the boy made a clumsy lunge at him. The demon easily dodged, rising into the air, and startling the townspeople a great deal. 

"Hey!" Saber protested, too startled to be afraid at the moment. "You're so much stronger than me, stay down here and fight!" His tone was indignant, but also fearful. If Saber's opponent could strike from the sky, the child would have no chance. 

With a growl, Mumm-Ra landed once more in front of him and took a swipe at the boy, faster than before. It caught Saber in the arm, and he let a restrained cry of pain as he staggered back. Mumm-Ra tried once again to cut him, but again the boy surprised him. 

Seeing that standing was doing little good, and he was not tall enough to reach anything vital without getting dangerously within the demon's range, Saber dropped to the ground into a low crouch. He'd use his short stature to his advantage! He took a swipe at the demon's knees. 

Mumm-Ra had not been expecting this, and a howl of rage and pain came from his throat. Everyone, including Saber, gaped at him. "You can feel pain!" the boy exclaimed, still crouching on the ground. As Mumm-Ra leaped back, his eye was drawn to the wound: A gaping gash much like those Saber had taken, but no blood. It looked like a cut might look on a rotten tomato. He had to keep himself from gagging. 

The ancient priest was not amused. The unnatural glow of his eyes intensified, as he brought his blade up to strike. Wincing, Saber scrambled to his feet and jumped sideways to avoid the strike. He almost hadn't been fast enough, as this had not been controlled; it was intended to cleave him in half. 

A chill of fear went through his body as he retreated from the angry immortal, as Mumm-Ra turned and struck again. His face was contorted into a snarl of hate uglier than anything Saber had ever seen. The mummy swung again, a slicing motion Saber barely blocked. Again it nearly struck the sword from his hand. 

The mummy's anger had faded just a little as he again was able to injure his opponent. Saber had taken a blow to the arm once more; the same one as before. It was beginning to hurt enough to bring him to tears, although he held them back. 

Mumm-Ra was no longer fighting at full speed. Again, he was making his attacks slow enough for Saber to be able to fight them off. He had not chased the boy down all this way to kill him in two seconds; he wanted to make him suffer first. And although he would have struck down anyone daring to suggest it, he admired the young adventurer. His fighting skills were nothing to brag about, but his courage and his will were strong. 

The pair had exchanged a few more blows, and although Saber was taking the majority of the hits; he still stood to fight. He'd been ridiculed all his young life by his peers, and even by the adults of the village. He wanted to show courage. He wanted to show strength. If he would die, he wanted to die as the warrior no one said that he could be. 

*** 

As this battle of life and death played itself out, a large army was making its way across the town's edge. This army of diverse beings did not receive a greeting, friendly or otherwise, as the townspeople that were not at the center of the village hid. They hid in terror of just one more piece of strangeness, and the new life forms. 

"Where now?" one of the women asked. 

"Not sure," Leyati said. He looked around and spied a young human man who was not hiding, but staring in fascination. He approached slowly, unthreateningly, so as not to startle him into silence. "Young fella," the old fisherman asked. "Do y' happen to know where a human child named Saber might be?" 

After a few moments more of fascinated staring, the young man stammered, "Y-yeah...I-I think the town square..." 

"Center of town?" The human nodded. Leyati also nodded, in thanks. "Thank y'. let's go! This is the right one!" This was shouted to the rest of the group, as Leyati raised the signal flag. The improvised army began to filter into the town from the forbidden Western Boarder. 

*** 

Saber was beginning to tire. The blade did not feel nearly so heavy as it had a year ago when he would heft it in his father's absence, and his long journey had strengthened his body almost as much as his mind. But still, he was only a boy, and a human. The demon he fought had a nearly endless supply of strength and energy compared to a human being. As the battle went on, the spectators watched with wide eyes. 

Saber was knocked off his feet by a kick to the stomach he had not even seen coming. In his growing fatigue, he might not have even been able to make his body move fast enough to avoid it. 

Saber sprawled backwards onto the stage, to his credit still holding the blade. His eyes widened as he realized his opponent was finished with the fight, and the blow he was about to land would be a killing one. Desperately, he brought his blade up, not even trying to stand, and braced the flat of the blade with his other hand. He'd made the move just in time, as the Sword of Plundaar clanged off his weapon, leaving him alive, although it did force his own weapon down into his hand and jarred his bones nearly to the point of breaking them. He cried out as he scrambled away, finally gaining his feet. 

Mumm-Ra had been taken by surprise at the quick defense. Having completely expected to strike the boy down permanently with the blow, he paused, giving Saber time to retreat. He nodded in grudging admiration. "Impressive, whelp," he said, turning to face the boy. "I expected you dead by now. Of course you're only delaying the inevitable, as you_ will_ die. Just stand and take it like a man. If you think you can." 

Yes, Saber had blocked the blow, but it had not been so easy. The force of it alone had cut his hand wide open, and he now had it pressed against his loincloth to stem the bleeding, and felt a lance of fear at how much blood was on his skin. He cried, but did not notice it. Indeed, his face was wet with perspiration, and one eye swollen from a fist-strike, so not many others noticed it either. "N-no," he said, panting, trying to catch his breath. "I-I know you can kill me...whenever you want. Y-You're just playing with me." Even in the condition he was in, he still felt satisfaction at the look of mild surprise on the demon's face. Saber swallowed hard as he added, "I'll stand until I can't!" 

Mumm-Ra narrowed his eyes at the boy's defiance. Yes, he would make this one's death painful, and slow. He would see just how long the boy forced himself to stand and fight. 

"It won't matter..." Saber continued, finally getting his breath back. "Go ahead. Kill me. But people know now, you can't fool them anymore. People know your Lunattack jerks are not demons, they know they can be hurt." He glanced behind him at a snarl of anger, and stepped forward a few steps. Chilldon did not make a move against him, although he very much wanted to. But not while Mumm-Ra was contending with him. 

The demon laughed, this a true sound of amusement. Cruel amusement, but sincere. "You pathetic excuse for a warrior. You speak of others knowing, but look at your people. They cower in front of me!" He turned, and sent a burst of lightning into the crowd. As all expected them to, they scattered with a collective sound of fear and alarm. "See? It does no good for them to 'know all about us'. They have no power! I have the all the forces of evil, and the powers of the elements at my fingertips! I cannot be killed! I have an army of powerful soldiers." he gestured to the Lunattacks, "They may be mortal as you have just demonstrated, but one alone could defeat three dozen humans!" His voice took on a tone of anger as he mentioned this fact. 

"Now. W ho do you have to fight against me, and all of this?" Mumm-Ra continued, glaring at the defiant child. 

Saber said nothing. What could he say? The hellish demon was right, he was alone. None of his people would stand up to such. Indeed, if his welcome back to his home had been any indication, they would all blame _him_ for all that had happened. they'd probably kill him themselves. 

Mumm-Ra was about to laugh at this lack of answer, and approached. His sword was in his hand, and this time, he intended to finish the boy off, as he had had his fun with him. He would take him apart piece by piece. 

But even as he raised the blade for the first strike, even as Saber's exhausted muscles struggled to lift his own weapon for a desperate defense, a lone voice cut through the silence. "He has me." 

Narrowing his eyes, Mumm-Ra turned to see who had spoken. Fegreth was standing again, ignoring his pain to stand up for his son. 

"And me." Dannika stood beside him. 

"M-me...me too..." Little Drii did not stand, but remained half-hidden behind the healer's assistant that had tended his injuries. But it had taken a good deal of courage for the little boy to have declared this. 

Saber looked on his family, suddenly feeling any trepidation he'd felt in facing them slip away. He gave them a look of pure gratitude. 

Mumm-Ra simply sneered, and raised a hand to blow them all away. He had had enough play; now it was time to get serious. The ancient channeler of evil power had no doubts that once these two troublemakers were fried, the others would fall over themselves begging for his forgiveness. 

"He has us!" a third voice declared. This was a stronger voice, not that of a tired, wounded man. A group of a dozen or so feral bipeds had finally reached the center of the Western Village. Nenda and his warriors had arrived. All were strong, tough, well trained fighters. And Bruters died no more easily than their ancestors, the Brutemen. But they had a good deal of intelligence to add to it. 

All of a sudden, Mumm-Ra did not look quite so cocky. He could defeat them easily, especially with the Lunattacks' help, but he was starting to wonder just how many people this brat had managed to rile up. 

"And he has us!" 

Every head turned to the sound of this new and final voice. To the west, the same place Saber had come from, stood an elderly looking man, although no one could tell for sure what his age was. His skin was purple, his strange hair a darker shade of it. He held a knife in his hand that he used for preparing fish. 

"Leyati!" Saber's tired voice held a note of pure amazement as he looked at the friend he'd made so long ago. So many months... But he had come nowhere near to forgetting him. 

The old Nai grinned. "They came looking for y', Saber. Figured you could use a hand...or a few hundred of them." He looked at Mumm-Ra as he said this, then to the people filing silently into the courtyard. Some carried hoes or shovels for weapons, some bore swords, daggers, spears, swords...it was apparent who were warriors and who were not. But all wore the same look. it was a look of combined fear and determination. And contempt. 

The villagers were shocked at seeing the Nai, and even moreso that Saber seemed not only to be unsurprised, but seemed to know them! "What in all the hells are those?" Drett breathed. He'd been injured in the attack from the Lunattacks, but not seriously. And now Iyen's father was ready to fight. His son came up beside him also to stare. Little did they, and the rest of the people in Saber's village know, but they looked at the fighters that would decide who would triumph that day. 

Part 36: The "Glory" of Battle 

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	36. The Glory of Battle

  
36 

The "Glory" of Battle 

"What the hell do we do about that, Fintii?" Infra demanded, looking at the large army that was still filtering silently into the courtyard. Even for a mighty Lunattack of Plundaar, it was more than intimidating to see hundreds of angry, armed people approaching to confront them. 

"We do what Mumm-Ra _tells_ us to do. Anything these humans and freaks can do to us, that mummy bonebag can do a thousand times worse. So just keep your eyes open." 

Infra scowled, but she nodded. Fintii was right, and she knew it. She took her throwing disk from its holster and got ready for a fight. 

Around the courtyard, the other Lunattacks also were also drawing your weapons. Some were edging for their vehicles. 

Mumm-Ra growled low in his throat as he addressed Leyati, his attention temporarily taken from his young adversary. "So. You intend to cross me, Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living." It was more a statement than a question, nothing that he wanted an answer to. His tone was low and contemptuous and angry. And then he laughed, a sound that chilled Saber's very soul. It was not the laugh of anything sane; not the laugh of someone who could feel mercy, or even humor. Only cruel amusement and pain. "Pathetic wretches. You dare defy me! This pitiful band of rebels will fight the power of the undead, of the immortal! You amuse me, Nai. This will be entertaining." He turned to Saber, who despite himself shied from his gaze. "I will deal with you soon." Then to the Lunattacks: "Attack!" 

It was at that point that the greatest, most viscous battle Saber's people had ever seen from the dawning of their realization of history began. 

Those who went unarmed scattered as the thirty or so Lunattacks all sprang into action. Some, such as Chilldon and Psychren, jumped into the crowd, swinging their weapons, or aiming them, or throwing them. Others headed for vehicles and took to the air to fire from above, and yet others ran for Skytomb. Fintii was among these, and she shouted out orders to those who were with her, Weapons were manned, Skytomb was piloted offensively, and people below were targeted. Suddenly the ari around Saber was a confusing mass of claning steel and angry cries. 

The only advantage there was to this was those above had to be careful not to hit their people who fought below. But still, there were far more warriors of their enemy to fire at. 

No signal was needed for Leyati and his improvised army. Now that the moment of truth was at hand, the warriors leaped into the fight with all their skill and training, Most had been through this many times before and even to those young warriors whose first battle would be this day, it was as if it were a carefully rehearsed dance. A deadly dance, that ended not in applause, but in blood. 

Even the ordinary citizens seemed to fight without fear. Although they trembled inside with terror, although their souls were chilled at the scene, their faces wore only expressions of fierce determination. As large as Leyati's numbers were, it would have been an easy battle, won quickly by the Nai and their allies. But one player in this scene was no mortal. Shrieking his magical commands to the sky, summoning the power from his abode so far away, the dark mage waved his hands to paint in the air murals of horrifying beasts. Another wave of his hand brought these murals to three dimensional life, and his newly created minions leapt into the crowd, intent only on destruction. 

As the formerly organized circle around him disintegrated into a mass of fighting, Saber slipped form the stage, holding his hand to his arm. Now that the adrenaline of the battle was waning, he had the leisure to feel every injury he had taken in the fight. Dropping his father's sword to the ground exhaustedly, he staggered towards them, stopping only a few feet away. He searched their faces, hoping that he would see what he hoped to see. He hoped he would see what he felt when they stood with him. He hoped to see pride, or at least welcome. Not disappointment or anger. 

The child was not disappointed. After a moment, Dannika burst into tears, a rare show of weakness, and threw her arms around Saber. The boy cried out at the sudden rough embrace, but protested no further than that. He had not seen his family in a year, and he had wanted so many times to. And now it had happened. Suddenly he felt as if he had nothing to worry about. Even if the village council banished them all, if he was with them, it wouldn't matter. He _knew_ places they could go. He knew of people that would help him. He knew that they would not die, they would not be turned out into wastelands as he would have thought before. 

When he father strode carefully over to add his strong arms to the embrace, Saber's knowledge of this fact was cemented. Even as his mother calmed her own weeping, the child burst into tears himself. All over the town square, seeping out into the streets and marketplace, and all across the village, the battle raged. 

"Raged" was indeed the word for it, as every move, every attack, every blow was made in anger. In rage. The Lunattacks fought, angry with the people of Fourth Earth for daring to rebel against such mighty creatures. They fought in fury, the insolent wretches that threatened their way of life, threatened their positions as lords of Fourth Earth. Who threatened their power. 

Saber's people, and Nenda's people, and Leyati's allies all fought in anger as well. They were angry at being oppressed, at being terrorized by a tyrant. They were enraged at having taken their rule for so many long years, for having to bow to them, and let them take what they wanted form their people. Seeing how many people had come to Saber's defense, even his own countrymen fought with this fierce determination. 

Anger makes one strong. That can be a good thing, but if this was the case, it was hard to tell. The fight was viscous, violent. Many died. Yet others were wounded, or trampled by other fighters. Those that had fled the fight even occasionally took a blow intended for another fighter, and so even those that did not choose to fight could not escape it. 

Drett and his son had gone into battle together, fighting side by side. The warrior had taught his son well, and it was apparent as many of their moves were executed in perfect unison, like a deadly ballet. The other warrior cadets had also been drawn into the fighting, each side by side with a trained fighter. Two of them fought with a group of Nai against one of Mumm-Ra's beasts, firing their bows, or slashing with their swords. And a cry of triumph was heard from them as the beast was finally defeated, and flew away in capitulation. It would not last long, as the genderless, unnatural beast was badly wounded. If it did not die on its own, Mumm-Ra would surely kill it for its failure. 

Saber had sat down on the ground, loathe to leave his parents, and his little brother again. Crouching beside the stage, underneath the hollow platform where there was the l least danger of being trampled, he was still within the embrace of hit father and his mother. When they finally let go of him, Drii crawled over and put his arms round his brother. "I knew you wouldn't die," he said to him. "I knew it." He sounded both scared and smug, if that was possible, Feeling a rush of strong love for the child, Saber thought 'only Drii could manage that'. He would have bet a wolf that he had tried to convince his parents he was still alive and failed. 

Ignoring the pain from his wounds, he held the child tightly. "Hey...I wouldn't die on you. Not yet, anyway. That would make your life too easy, twerp." 

At the feel of a gentle hand on his shoulder, he turned around to see the healer's assistant that had taken care of Drii. The little boy had been given painkillers, and had been tightly bandaged. "Let me look at you, young man," the assistant said, glancing around at the fighters. She could tell her services would be needed yet more. 

Amazed he had been called something other than child or boy, or worse, scholar or poet, Saber willingly let her take a look. He clenched his teeth as she prodded, and as she did a quick field job of stitching on the worst of them. He locked his throat against an outcry as she finished, and bandaged him up. "I feel like that mummy creature," he joked weakly. 

"Here," the healer said, handing the boy a small vial of a natural painkiller. "It will make you sleepy...but it should take most of the pain away." 

Saber nodded, and opened the vial. 

But before he could as much as taste it, Saber yelped in shocked surprise as someone grabbed his arm from the side and jerked him to his feet. His startled eyes rose to meet the unsettling blue and white ones of one angry Chilldon. "I told you you'd die," he growled at the boy. He had taken an ax handle in the head, and he bled from a gash on his brow. His long hair was disheveled, and his eyes wild-looking, the white pupils wide in fury. 

Saber jerked his arm away, bringing his own up in time to block the Lunattack from plunging his dagger into Saber's throat. Crying out as he caught the blade's edge along his hand, he held onto the Lunattack's wrist for all he was worth, kicking out at him to get him away. 

As his family watched, too shocked at the moment to say anything, Chilldon grunted and staggered back, allowing Saber to scramble up onto the stage. His eyes darted frantically back and forth as he hunted for the dagger he had dropped earlier the adrenaline pumped again, giving him a second wind, making him impervious to the fatigue that had plagued him. 

The child located the blade and snatched it up in time to spin around into another attack. He slashed downward with his dagger, knocking Chilldon's own away from him. Saber dropped, and tried the same move on Chilldon that he had done with Mumm-Ra, but Chilldon had seen that, and now knew better. He leapt away, then pun around with a viscous kick to the boy's face. Saber had been too slow in standing, and took a good deal of the blow across the face. He sprawled backwards onto the wood. 

Chilldon leapt at him, his dagger aimed again for his throat, and Saber had to drop his own blade to stop his enemy's. His eyes showing the fear and pain he felt, Saber struggled to get the Lunattack off of him, without allowing him to plunge the blade into his flesh. He was so close, he had made it home! He could not die now, after only being reunited with his family! 

Saber tried to kick Chilldon off of him, but the adult was too heavy, and he did not succeed. Not only that, but Chilldon freed his hand of the boy's tired grip, and brought his dagger up for a killing blow. And Saber was unarmed, not able to defend himself. 

But Chilldon never landed the strike. Before he could even bring the blade down, he howled in pain, and rolled off of his young adversary. His dagger was dropped as he clutched his side. His _bleeding_ side. 

Dazed, Saber looked up with eyes that were blurring at the one that had just saved his life, and was very surprised to see that it was Iyen, his old nemesis. Strange how the one who had seemed the worst enemy a boy could have now seemed like his greatest ally. "I owe you one..." he said in a hoarse whisper. 

Iyen looked at the younger boy for a moment, still unable to believe how he had changed. After a moment, he offered a hand to him. Surprised, Saber took it, and allowed Iyen to help him up, staggering as he did. The older boy steadied him and nodded. "You all right?" 

"I-I think I will be." He had not meant to stammer, especially not in front of Iyen, but he couldn't help it. But Iyen did not mock him, only nodded. He looked like he wanted to say more to him, but instead only jumped back into the fray. 

Getting a chance to catch his breath, Saber looked around at the battle. He had always thought battle to be noble, to be glorious, honorable. Something to be proud of. But it was not. What he saw was death. Mass death, people dying, others screaming in pain, or as they watched loved ones being cut down, injured...killed. The smell of blood was in the air, the shrieks of pain and fury sounded. Not even aware he was crying, Saber shut his eyes tight, and when his mother climbed up onto the stage to put her arms around him, he did not open them. 

Part 37: Retreat and Recovery 

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	37. Retreat and Recovery

  
37 

Retreat and Recovery 

Chilldon did not attack again. He had been too badly wounded, and had he tried again, he likely would have collapsed. He staggered back to his Icerunner, clutching his side, and flew back to Skytomb, swerving as he did. One of the Psychic Lunattacks there helped him to the medical room. He would live, but only after a long recovery. But he would remember. Oh yes. He would remember. 

During the fighting, Mumm-Ra had lost track of the boy, and now he was not even his biggest concern at the moment. The evil priest could no longer fight, as he had to use all his concentration to keep up his magic and his strength. The ancient mage had wondered why he was not able to fight while he maintained his monsters of evil but now he realized it. He realized why he was feeling his power drain, and his strength ebb. He was too far away form his pyramid, the very source of his energy. 

Even as he tried to summon anther burst of energy, he saw a group of villagers taking down a gigantic rat that had been toppling the humans with its tail. he caught form the corner of his unnatural eyes, a warrior downed by a four foot creature made of whirling razor blades, and he saw three others corral it with iron farming implements. 

He was losing this battle. Kasana-Kai, the courageous woman who had died fighting Mumm-Ra, made only one mistake: where she chose to fight. Her courage, strategy, and fighting skills were surpassing. But she had chosen the wrong battlefield: Mumm-Ra's own home, where his strength was at its peak. Here, so far from the onyx pyramid from which he drew his power, he was weak. And slowly, the many villagers and warriors were defeating him and his monsters. 

Finally, the demon priest's strength gave out. Even in midair, his body simply collapsed, and went limp. Humans, and Nai, Bruters and reptiles, cried out in surprise and shock as beasts that they were fighting simply disappeared. Some cried out in pain as the resistance of the beasts against their weapons was suddenly gone, and a fellow warrior that had been on the other side of the monster accidentally cut or struck them. 

Summoning what power he had left, Mumm-Ra crept aboard Skytomb. "Retreat," he commanded hoarsely to those present. The three that had been left behind to man Skytomb, and who had been taking potshots at buildings and fighters, simply gaped at him. Never before had they seen their lord bested, and certainly not by a human child and his people. 

But finally, a young Icy Lunattack with rare fiery red hair, shook herself out of her shock and hit the radio's control. Directly linking to Fintii's own communicator, the young Lunattack cried, "Fintii! Mumm-Ra gives the order to retreat!" 

After a few screeches of indignation, Fintii finally ordered her minions: "Lunattacks! Back to Skytomb!!" One by one, they disengaged from their fights and ran for their vehicles. When all were aboard, they took off. 

*** 

Mumm-Ra had realized something, as he flew back to his pyramid in the forgotten desert. He know knew why he had not destroyed Saber when he had the chance. He knew why he had never struck down the ThunderCats as they slept. He was a demon, yes; an evil priest of black magic, but he was a warrior. And no matter how long they have lived, what species they were, warriors needed battles to fight. He'd had _ample_ oppurtunities to kill his many adversaries spanning the centuries, and had not. Not out of a sense of fairness, he didn't fight fair. He wanted a fight, a battle that while not fair perhaps, was up front and honorable. He had tried the underhanded way and failed. It was not the way of a warrior. 

And so, feeling the pain of the battle, he slipped back into his sarcophagus to rest. To rest so he could fight nother day. 

*** 

Saber's once-quiet village now looked like the battlefield it had become. Those who had been wounded in battle lay on the ground, some never to get up again. homes had been set afire by Skytomb's weaponry, some simply had been blasted, and sported large holes in its walls. Windows had been broken, and the stage itself had a large crack in it. From the protective circle of his mother's arms, Saber looked at all of this and felt an unbearable guilt and sorrow. His people, and his friends had been hurt and killed because of him. Because in his selfishness, he had left the Valley, and brought this on his people. 

Saber had not thought anything could tear him away from his mother, but there was something. He heard a cry of anguish from someone he knew, and looked behind him. Iyen was kneeling by a still form on the ground, the one that had been downed by Mumm-Ra's razor blade creature. "I-I'll be right back..." Saber whispered to his mother, and pulled away from her, she was reluctant to let him go, but finally did, and Saber went to the young warrior. 

He bit his lip as his suspicious was confirmed: the man on the ground was Drett, Iyen's father, and the best warrior in the village. He lay completely still on the ground, face down, bleeding from his side and midsection. Saber did not have to be a healer to see that the warrior was not breathing. 

Drett had often treated Saber badly, chasing him away form the warriors' training arena, or shoving him aside when the boy got in his way if he was in a particularly bad mood. Now his mind flashed on a day not too long before he left. He remembered Drett telling him that he could be a bastard sometimes, but he did respect courage, no matter whose it was. He also knelt next to Iyen, who did not look up. "I'm sorry," Saber whispered. 

Iyen looked up from where he had his face buried in his arms, tears in his eyes, and Saber expected the cadet to punch him. It was his fault Drett was dead, why shouldn't he? But he did nothing, only nodded, and stood up. Head down, he walked silently away, thinking already of funeral arrangements. When one of Saber's people died, he was not buried, but cremated, with full ceremony. Iyen would have to help his mother with the arrangements, which for a warrior were more complex than a ceremony for others. Iyen was the man of the house now, with his mother being a scholar, not a warrior. Iyen would be in charge. 

Crying himself, Saber got up and ran from the body, not able to look at it any longer. He buried his face in his mother's clothing and did not look up again. He had been strong for too long, and now was the time to be a child. He didn't feel it when the healer's apprentice dressed the worst of his wounds so he would not bleed to death. He did not hear her move on to the next. He didn't feel the pain from his own injuries, or notice when his father coaxed him to drink the painkiller he had not had a chance to drink before. He just hid. 

Saber was taken home, and put to bed. The next day, the healer himself came to check on him, once the severely wounded had been tended. He looked as tired and haggard as the warriors themselves, and Saber did not think that he had had any sleep. He looked up at the healer that he had been so angry with at one point for ratting on him when he first strayed beyond the Western Boarder, and felt that anger again. But it was at himself. He looked away. 

"How are you feeling, young Saber?" the healer asked, his deep voice low and gentle. The boy did not answer as the medical kit was opened. "I am going to check your injuries, and finish tending them. It will hurt, so brace yourself." When Saber only nodded his consent, the healer brought out a lot of fresh bandages, some salve, and some stitches. 

The skilled healer worked quickly, cleaning the wounds, dressing those not needing stitches. Many of the apprentice's hasty stitches had come undone. He sewed together the boy's skin where it was badly slashed, and bandaged that too. Saber endured the whole thing with only an outcry here and there. 

He was given more painkiller, and again fell asleep, too exhausted to remain conscious. 

Several days passed, during which Saber rested, and recovered. Fegreth also had begun to recover, although his cracked pelvis would take a long time to heal. Drii also had to heal, from his unarguably terrifying experience at the hands of Psychren. 

On the fifth day, Drii tentatively opened Saber's door. Saber looked at him from eyes that looked tired and hurt. "Hey..." he said to the child. He sat up and looked at Drii. He had spent the days looking around his room and taking comfort in its warm security. 

"Hi, Saber..." Drii carefully climbed up onto his brother's bed, and sat next to him. Saber sat up slowly. "Saber? The elders say that we have to go in front of the council. All of us..." 

Saber frowned, then sighed. "I thought so," he said, nodding his head. "I...a lot of people got hurt, Drii...like you. And it's my fault. They....the council probably will banish me...maybe all of us. I'm a child, th-they won't have me executed..." He hoped fervently that those words were true, but even Drii could tell that he was not certain. 

"I won't let them!" the child said with fierce determination. "I won't let them kill you!" He bit his lip and threw his arms around his older brother. "I missed you...for a long time. You-you said you'd be back soon, and when you didn't, everyone thought you died, but I knew you didn't, and they can't kill you!" 

"Hey," Saber said. His worried voice softened, and he embraced his brother. "It's okay, Drii...I don't think they will. I meant to come back." He sighed. "It's a long story, but I promise I'll tell you the whole thing later, okay?" 

Drii only nodded, and held his brother tight. He was crying. 

"Hey," Saber said. He got off the bed, clenching his teeth against an outcry, and went to his pack. It had been simply thrown into his room when he was brought in, half conscious, and had stayed unopened since then. He undid the rawhide and searched, throwing a few things out onto the floor. Finally he smiled and brought out the green blanket, Drii's hintrin. "I'm here and alive," he said to the little boy. "So I guess it worked." 

Drii's eyes got wide, and he took the blanket, holding it to his face. "My hintriin! You brought it back!" 

"Of course. I told you I would." Saber tried to take a tone of playful smugness, but it just sounded tired. "I'll show you all my drawings when I tell you the story." 

"Okay!" His own injuries healed enough to be merely an inconvenience, Drii threw his arms around Saber, making him yelp in pain. _His_ wounds were not so healed. "I'm glad you're back." This time it was barely a whisper. 

"Yeah..." Saber said. "Me too." 

Drii was not his only visitor, although the most frequent one. 

Leyati had come and visited Saber several times in those days, as he and his army had camped out just outside the Berbil Village. "Strange folk," he'd said once to Saber. "Don't think they quite belong anywhere." And that was a very accurate statement. 

The last time he came in, Saber was finally putting everything away. He had written many pages in his journal the night before, telling of everything that had happened since his last entry; he went into detail, describing the sights, the sounds, the feelings. He looked up and grinned as the old fisherman entered.. It had been two weeks now, and he was not in pain anymore, and nearly healed. "Hey, Leyati..." he sighed. "I never got to tell you....thanks. You-you saved my life I think. And the whole village too. They wanted to kill everyone, destroy the whole village." 

Leyati nodded and ruffled the boy's long hair. "Well, young fella, I couldn't just leave y' here. Not when those Lunattacks and their lord were after y'. And y' know, your little talk with me just made me realize that even old timers like me can learn from a child." he embraced the boy. "But now that we've all had time to heal our wounds, and recover, it's time we moved on." Saber pulled back to look at him, shocked. "It's time for us t' go home, Saber." 

Trying to hold back his tears, Saber nodded. "I-I understand. Will I ever see you again?" 

"Well I hope so, son," the old Nai said. "Y' know where we are now." He laughed gently. "Convince y're folks to come with y' and visit." Saber nodded, not trusting himself to speak. "Just don't forget me in the meanwhile." 

Saber looked to his wall, where his father had made a little rack to display the dagger Leyati had given him, and he shook his head. "No. I don't think I'll forget you." 

Leyati smiled. "Good luck, Saber." Saber watched him go, and finally let himself cry. 

Part 38: Council 

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	38. Council

  
38 

Council 

The council date was set in three weeks, in the summer. Saber wore boots, something he rarely wore in the summertime. He wore light breeches, and a tan vest, along with his head and arm bands. After all, he was going in front of the village council for something very serious, he had not been out of the house and yard since the battle. This would be the first time going into town. He tried to look like he was not scared, but he was. He had faced the most terrifying beings on Fourth Earth; it was ironic that he feared his own people almost as much. It would be even more ironic if he was put to death by them after having survived this far. 

Even though they were not scheduled to appear before them until noon, Saber had been up at dawn, also something he rarely did in the summer. Fegreth came into his room midmorning. "You all right?" he asked the boy quietly. He knew his son did not want anyone to know how worried he was. 

Saber looked up and nodded, but then changed his mind and shook his head. The boy looked down as he sat on the edge of his bed, looking miserable. 

Fegreth sat down next to him and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "Have courage, child," he said kindly. "And I know you have plenty of it." He and Saber had talked a lot while the boy was recovering, and afterwards as well while he simply enjoyed being with him family again, and began the recovery in his mind. "Whatever happens, we'll be with you the entire time." 

Saber smiled at his father and returned the embrace. "Thank you," he whispered. 

"You know I was angry at you for a long time for leaving, but I was more angry at myself. I thought you had left because of me." 

Saber looked at his father, surprised. Fegreth rarely admitted when he was wrong, or thought that he was. 

Fegreth chuckled. "Yes, Saber, I thought it was my fault. And when the demons...these Lunattacks...said that you were dead, I thought that was my fault too. I became so enraged that I attacked one of them." 

Now this Saber had not heard yet, and only stared for a moment. "You...you attacked one of the 'demons'?" he gasped. None of his village would have dared do it. And the thought of Saber's death had made his father brave...or mad...enough to do it? "What happened?" 

Fegreth's face was grim. "The short round one-" 

"Earthquake's his name," Saber interrupted. 

Fegreth nodded. "Yes. He used his strange weapon to slam me into the wall a few times. I was a while recovering from that." 

Saber winced. "I'm sorry." 

Fegreth smiled and gave his son's shoulders a squeeze. "Don't be. I would do it again if I thought they had hurt you." 

Just then, Dannika came into the room holding the hand of a very frightened looking Drii. They both were also dressed more than usual for the time of year. "Well we had better get going if we're to be there on time," Dannika said. She looked as tense as Saber felt. 

Saber and his father both nodded, and got up form the bed. "We're ready. 

Maybe you're ready, Saber said silently as they left their house to travel to the town square. But I am not. 

The trek to the middle of town, normally a fairly short walk, seemed very long to the family as they made their way to the council's meeting place. But even then, they arrived all too soon for the reluctant family. "Well," Fegreth said. "We're here. Let's get this over with." 

Dannika nodded, and they entered. 

When they got inside, the elders and members of the council were already there, and seated in their respective places. There were seven of them, two women, five men, two of them elders. Saber's family stood until the eldest, the head of the council, nodded to them, and they sat down. The chamber was set up so that everyone was at floor level; at one end there was the semi circle of a table, with a covered front, and attached chairs behind it. The council sat here, their head in the center. In the middle of the room, facing the council, were two benches, each seating four people. Saber's family sat on the front one when told to.   
They remained silent. 

The head of the council, an old Erthrin called Taeden, finally stood. Saber did not know about his family, but he himself felt like creeping under the bench at the elder's stern, less than approving gaze. But he showed no fear, and only returned the gaze. he did not want to seem hostile, but neither did he want to seem meek. Now, Taeden spoke. "Saber, of the Western Boarder." It was ironic, how his part of the village was called that, when the actual borders were off limits. "You have been brought before this council for your actions of the past year, leading up to the attack on this village, by the demons of the rocklands." 

Not knowing if he should speak or not, Saber said nothing, only flashed his father a nervous glance. Fegreth smiled encouragingly at him, although he himself felt less than confident. Saber looked back to the elder. 

Taeden continued. "Why did you go beyond the forbidden territories?" 

Saber gulped, and started, "W-well, I--" 

"Stand up, boy." 

Rising to his feet, Saber began again, trying not to stammer again, but did not get any farther than a few words before his father also stood. "If I may speak?" he said, but was surprised to be stopped by his son's hand on his arm. 

"Father...I-I must speak for myself on this." 

Smiling at the boy and squeezing his shoulder, Fegreth nodded. "Good man.," He sat and let his son speak. 

Finally finding his voice, Saber finally spoke. "I left because...well sir, I guess curiosity." 

The elder nodded as if Fegreth's interruption had not occurred. "And this was the first time you did it?" 

"Uh, well...no...I did it once before, but came back." 

"Why? And what made you leave again?" 

Feeling very uncomfortable, Saber looked down and shrugged. Who was he to tell the head of the village council that he did not want to be what his parents said he was to be? Who was he to tell Taeden that the rules of his people were wrong? It was easy to express this to his little brother as he had that one day, before he left. but this was not a five-year-old child he spoke to. It was the person that would likely decide if he lived or died. 

Finally, he sighed. "Sir...my parents wanted me to be a scholar." He braced himself, gathered his courage, and continued. "I-I don't believe in the village's rule. I think children should be allowed to choose what they want to do." He winced at a sound of anger from one of the other council members, but did not cringe. 

Taeden, who was an old man with a short, reddish-white beard, narrowed his eyes. "Is that so." It was more a statement than a question. "And you believe that a child know what he wants, do you?" 

This statement made Saber feel somewhat angry, seeing it as a derisive comment. But of course, he did not say so to the elder. "No, sir. Not when they are little. But I also do not believe that someone else knows any better what they want or would be good at." For the first time, the child looked up to face the council head. "They all said I was too little and weak to be anything but a scholar. Everyone made fun of me. I left, and I'm now as strong as any other boy my age. I don't run away from what I am afraid of. I fight. I don't back down, or expect others to fight for me. Grown ups are not always right." This was bordering on insolence, and he knew it. He had honestly told the elder his beliefs...and he would not take it back if he could. If he would be sentenced today, found guilty or not, it would happen because of what he truly believed in. 

Remembering he had also asked why he went back home the first time he said, "The first time, I was unnerved by a noise I heard...which ended up being a harmless race of people..." 

Taeden looked at the boy for a long time, making Saber feel even more uncomfortable. After what seemed like hours, he spoke once again, on a completely different subject. "And what did you do when you left the final time?" 

Saber was thrown off by this change of subject, but recovered enough to tell the elder where he went, and what he saw on his journey. When encouraged to continue, he told the council of the Berbils, of the Unicorn Guardians, and the things they had called Berbils. He recalled the story they had told, and his search for the animal fortress afterwards. Before he was done, he spoke of the Lunattacks, his ordeal at their hands, and how he had managed to make it to the great sea he had always heard about in the legends. 

At this, one of the council members, the younger woman, stood up. "Elder, I think that we have heard enough nonsense from this child. I do not know what you think, but I for one have heard enough of his lies." 

Lies! They were not lies! Saber turned to face her. "They are no lies! Everything I told you happened, and I can prove it! I could take you there if you wanted me to." 

"Enough, whelp!" the woman growled., "How dare you speak to a council member like that, insolent brat?" 

"That is quite enough!" Taeden said, speaking, to Saber's shock, to both him and the woman. "This is a civilized council, not a schoolyard. Saber, you will remember your manners when talking to you elders, and Hennish, you will refrain from speaking until it is your turn." Abashed, the woman mumbled something that Saber could not hear, and sat down. Saber himself mumbled an apology. 

The elder turned to a young man, the youngest of the council, and said, "Pyren, does the child lie?" Pyren, a young mystic, with abilities of the mind, shook his head. He was one of the rare ones, who could know what others were thinking, could tell when they were lying, or when they had broken the law. He was feared by many, respected by others. "He tells the truth," he said, his low voice calm. 

The elder thanked him then turned back to Saber. "Go on." 

Saber shrugged. There really was not a lot more to tell, other than the villages he went through, and the people he met, and the hardship he had gone through that had strengthened him, both body and mind. He told of how he talked to people about the Lunattacks and their lord, how he told them what he believed about freedom. The last thing that happened before nearing home was the ice palace, and the swamp. More reluctantly, he talked of how the Lunattacks had found him in the woods, then gone on into the village. He did make sure to tell them that they already knew where it was; Saber had not told them. 

Taeden looked hard at the boy, his expression not as hostile as Saber had expected. "And you did this because you did not want to be what your parents said you were to be?" 

"Well, partly." Taeden raised a brow. "I also...I wanted to explore. I wanted to see what was beyond the Valley. I wanted to see new places, and creatures, new things." It was as close as Saber could get to explaining the fierce desire to explore, the need of adventure, instead of the limited life he led in the village. The world was huge, much bigger than the village, which now seemed very tiny to the young human. He could not even come close to telling the council how he felt when he saw the great Cat Lair, or the vast sea, or how he felt when he discovered that on the same planet, there were many other life forms other than the Erthrins and the Bruters. 

"And for this, you endangered the whole village?" 

Again, Saber felt indignation at the question. "Of course not, I had no idea what would happen. How was I to know that those Lunattacks were watching me, and wanted to keep us all in the valley so we wouldn't get any ideas?" Saber crossed his arms. 

"Watch your tone, child. So you left, not knowing what would happen. This is why our people do not leave the valley., This is why we stay, and do as we are supposed to. One small child left his home, and look at the consequences." 

Saber bit his lip. The elder was right, but still, it was a horrible thought to the child. he had a vision of his people thousands of years from now, still in the same tiny valley, still going to school and learning only a fraction of what there was to learn of the planet. saw them still selling their goods and performing their trades. He saw warrior cadets training to fight, when there was nothing to fight. What was the point? It reminded him of the Berbils, and he had to repress a shudder. 

"Yes," he said quietly. "To keep on jumping every time the 'demons' tell us to. To be ordered around by their lord. To live trapped. To stay in one tiny part of the world when there's more than we could ever explore in one lifetime! There are people out there that could be our allies! The Nai, and the reptiles. The Unicorn guardians, and the other Erthrins...there are others! I talked with them! And they even came here to help fight. They saved this village." 

"Saved it from your folly." 

"I would do it again." It was not defiance or disrespect, only a quiet statement of truth. 

"Very well. Sit down." As Saber sat, looking again at his father in apprehension, Taeden told Dannika and Fegreth to stand. "Have you anything to say in your son's defense?" 

This time, Saber did cringe. It sounded so much like he were on trial, and as he thought about it, he supposed he was. Feeling the stares of the council on him, he looked down at his booted feet. 

"Yes, sir," Fegreth's strong, confident voice. "I will not condone his breaking the laws of the village. But I also can not say that he did wrong. He did what he felt was right in his heart, and as a fellow warrior, I understand it." 

Saber's jaw dropped, and he gaped at the words his father had just said,. His father, who had smacked him for wanting to be an explorer, or a warrior. His father, that had punished him for venturing from the Valley, was now speaking of him as if they were equals? Feeling a rush of love and gratitude for his father, Saber managed to smile. 

"Furthermore," Dannika added. "Saber did his part against the _mortals_." She said this on purpose, emphasizing the word. "He fought as bravely as any of the warriors here, and was nearly killed for it. And he did it to defend his people and his family." 

"Yes," Fegreth said. "He proved that these demons we have been hiding from are not immortal, and can be fought. And killed." He sighed. "Elder...he has found a way that we can free ourselves. He has found a way for us to be our own people, and venture from the womb we live in." 

Saber looked on his father in admiration. Never could he have come up with those kinds of words, but they expressed exactly what he felt. And they called Saber a poet! Even the most courageous fighters could have a way with words. 

Taeden said nothing again for a long time, then said in a quiet voice, "Then you stand by your son?" 

Both nodded. "We do," Dannika said. 

"Yeah..." Drii ventured, still clutching his mother's hand. "I-I...I do too..." 

One last time, Taeden looked on Saber. "Saber. Do you know the consequences that are normally passed on those that venture from the Valley?" 

Saber bit his lip. Yes. He knew. "Exile?" 

"Yes. And an action that causes people to die, or causes people to get hurt, let alone the whole village?" 

This time, Saber could not keep from swallowing hard, or stuttering in his answer. "E-execution." 

Taeden nodded. "Very well. Sit, we will return with our decision." Without so much as another word, Taeden left the room, and the other council members followed. They would meet in the back room to decide what was to be done. 

Saber was shaking. Now that it was over, and he was no longer on the hot seat, it came crashing down. Letting out a shaky sigh, he put his head in his hands. Dannika put an arm around her child. "Whatever happens, we'll stand by you the whole way." 

Saber looked up and smiled at his mother. He appreciated the thought., but depending on the sentence... He sighed. "I'm afraid." If they were to bring down a sentence of death on him? Would he go willingly, to be killed by his own poeple after fighting so harshly against his enemies to stay alive? No, he could not do that. Everything in him cried out in protest of the very thought. 

"That's all right, to be afraid. No warrior is never afraid." Fegreth looked at his son. "I have thought on what you have said. And I have to admit that I was wrong." He chuckled a little. "Yes, even a father can be wrong. I can see how mistaken we were concerning the trade we assigned you. You never were good at book studies. You never liked them. Looks like we judged our own son by size and appearance." 

Saber nodded slowly; his parents always instilled in him the importance of not judging others. "Thanks," he whispered. 

"You have the heart of a wolf, son. Keep your courage up. It will turn out all right." 

*** 

In the back room, the council was arguing among themselves. "I say that we put him to death." This was the woman that had spoken out in the council meeting, Hennish. "A lot of good fighters died because of him. The village was destroyed!" 

"It was not destroyed," another argued. "He's just a boy that got wanderlust. You're going to tell me you never wondered what was beyond the boarders of this Valley?" He himself had, and had, unbeknownst to his parents, ventured to the edge of the village. But not beyond. 

"Of course," Hennish snapped. "But I never acted on it and endangered the whole village." 

"That's because you lack the courage," another man sneered. 

The woman growled, but under the stern gaze of the council head, said no more. 

"Besides," said another. "He is only a child." 

"He was responsible for a lot of people getting hurt," the mystic said slowly. He was one of the fairest of the council, always with a cool head. "But I was there. And the boy's parents are right. He fought to keep his brother from being hurt, and took the same risk as all those other warriors. He was also badly hurt." 

"And you say he spoke the truth of his journey," said the one that had sneered at Hennish. "If this is so, he has suffered a good deal already." 

The eldest, the other elder of the group and the second ranking of the council, put a hand to his chin. "Just maybe the child is right," he said. "We must ask ourselves...to remain in this rigid, never changing life, are we truly living? Or only existing? Mayhap it is time that we begin a little change and see what else is in this world that we live in." 

There was a mild outcry of disbelief from some of the less liberal members at this, the ones for whom such a change was unthinkable. 

This debate went for over three hours, a long session for the usually brief, unanimous decisions of the council. But finally the decision was made, four to three. And the council head made his decision of punishment. 

In the chamber, Saber had been pacing back and forth as the council's deliberation dragged on. Drii had been falling asleep, Dannika stroking his hair, more to calm herself than to calm the child Fegreth simply sat, seemingly solid as the council filtered back in. Dannika woke the sleeping child and they both stood. Saber stopped pacing, and bit his lip, and hid his clenched fists behind his back. He just barely concealed his fear, and waited for the sentence. 

"This council has come to the decision that you are guilty of the harm you have caused the village," Taeden began. Saber swallowed hard, and clenched his fists tighter, not feeling it when the fingernails dug into his palms. Dannika gasped quietly. 

"Although the sentence would normally be death, in this case...well this situation is a little different." In the dim room, the elder paced slowly back and forth. "Your youth was a consideration of course, in which case the father or mother would take responsibility." 

"And we are ready to--" Fegreth began, but Taeden cut him off. 

"But we believe that although still a child, Saber is old enough to accept his own consequences." 

"I-I am ready also," Saber whispered, trying to banish horrible thoughts of what they were going to do to him. 

Taeden nodded. "Very well. Then this council has decreed that you will be exiled from the Valley for a period of one year, the same amount of time that you were gone." Dannika gasped at this. "You will go with no supplies but a dagger, a week's supply of food, and clothing. You will travel at least a month from the village, and will not come any closer than that until the year has passed. You must leave three weeks from today. If you fail in any of these, the sentence of death will be carried out." 

After a moment of silence from those in the chamber, Taeden chuckled; Saber thought, to his surprise, that it sounded sad. "And just maybe during that time, we will take your words to heart. If you survive in that time, one year from the day you leave, you will be allowed back to live here as before." 

"Elder..." Fegreth said. "Must he go alone?" 

"No. If you so choose, you may accompany him, but will be allowed no more supplies than he has been allowed. If you all choose to leave, your home and belongings will be looked after by our council, or one of your choice until your return." 

"May we have a moment to speak with each other?" At the elder's nod of assent, they turned around to speak. 

Saber did not trust himself to say anything but this: "I-I...I don't want you to have to leave because of me." 

"I want to go with you..." This was Drii, and he looked up at his brother. "I wanted to before...remember?" Saber only nodded. "Well...I'll go...if you want me to." 

Saber could not help but smile at the boy, and embrace him. "Thanks," he whispered. 

"Then I believe it is settled." Fegreth put a hand on Saber's shoulder. "We said that we would stand by you, and that is what we will do." Turning around, he addressed the council head. "Elder, we have decided. We will all go." 

"Then it is done. The sentence thus passed, this council is adjourned." 

Feeling as though he had been run down by a cart, Saber looked down to the ground. Because of him, his family would be forced to leave their home for a year...it was so long. He knew just how long a year could be. 

The young adventurer bit his lip as he began to leave the chamber, having to blink back tears. When he felt his father's strong arm around him, he could not hold it back anymore, and burst into tears. 

His family comforted him through the day, until his fell into an exhausted sleep. 

The next day, they began making their preparations. Their closest friend, a friend of the family's for years, agreed to look after their home for that time. They packed clothing, and blankets, which were all things approved by the council. Saber was allowed, after asking the council head, to bring his parchments and writing sticks, and Drii was allowed his stuffed toy and a few other toys to amuse himself with. Fegreth took his sword, which as a warrior, the council allowed, and Saber carried the dagger that Leyati had given him. He had returned his father's dagger. 

Word had gotten around as to what would happen with the family, and Saber found as he went about town, helping his parents prepare, that he got mixed reactions from the people. Many simply gave him hostile stares, some told him that he should have been executed. Yet others looked at him with pity, and he did not know which was worse. He was surprised though, there were those that told him that they respected his bravery. 

He had met Iyen in one of the clothing shops andhe did not know what to say. Drett had been cremated on a funeral pyre on the outskirts of the village, in the rocklands between Saber's town and the lowlanders. "Hi..." he said, looking down at the floor. 

Iyen had spent weeks mourning his father, and he knew that he always would. At first, he had felt a good deal of hostility towards Saber, blaming him for his father's death. Even now, he felt the resentment, and a small part of him was glad Saber had been banished, even for a year. But still, he had seen Saber fight. The kid did not know how, but still he fought...and even he had to admit that he showed bravery the older boy did not think he possessed. Finally he answered. "Hi. You are leaving in a week?" 

Saber nodded. "Yeah. I guess you won't have to look at my face for a year. Maybe by then you will not want to smash it anymore." 

Iyen sighed. "Saber..." He shrugged. Childish rivalries seemed pretty little and foolish now, and he just felt tired. Saber would have understood completely. "No, I don't want to smash you, I did, but my father died a brave death, which is what all warriors want when they die. I thought for a long time when you were gone, that I hoped you got killed a day out." The older boy shrugged. "I don;t anymore." 

"You don't?" Saber asked incredulously. He hadn't mean to sound like an awed child, but he had not expected anything but hostility from Iyen. All he saw was weariness and sorrow and something that he was not sure about. But it might have been respect. 

"Yeah. Maybe I don't seem like it, but I do respect courage, even from a poet." After looking on the younger boy for a moment, Iyen left the shop. 

Iyen's unwitting near-echo of Drett's last words with Saber had made a chill run down his spine, and he bit his lip against the tears that threatened. His head down, he also left the shop. 

Finally it came. The three weeks went all too fast for Saber, but when it was up, the head of the council came to his home, and told him that it was time. Everything having been packed, Saber and his family left the house. After the council head inspected their limited supplies, he nodded and allowed them to leave. "Good luck. Remember: one year." 

A gathering of people were there to see the family off., Many had forgiven Saber for those who had died or been hurt, and others still thought he should have been put to death. But still they came to watch them leave. 

Saber looked back only once as he set of towards the Western boarder, then looked forward into the woods. His intense feeling of doom slowly gave way to the excitement he had felt the first time, of exploring new lands and new worlds. He felt the rush of pleasure from standing in the warm summer sun, an exciting journey ahead of him. He did want his family to see what he had seen, to show him the wonders he'd experienced. And maybe, just maybe, the council head was right, and they would think about the things that he had said. Maybe one courageous child had been the inspiration his people needed to go beyond their tiny valley, and really start to live. 

His spirits higher than they had been in a month, and looking up to the cloudless blue sky, Saber took the lead. 

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